It is official. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting finally accepted death over balance.
This week, the CPB announced that, with the withdrawal of federal funding, it would cease operations by September 30, 2025: “Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations.”
The autopsy for the CPB, however, will put this cause of death as a self-inflicted blow.
For almost 60 years, Republican Presidents and conservative politicians have complained about the overwhelming liberal bias at the CPB and its supported programs, particularly National Public Radio (NPR). For most of those years, the CPB could shrug off the complaints. The Democrats controlled one or both houses (or at least the White House). With the political left solidly behind the CPB, the corporation refused to carry out even modest reforms. It simply gave the stiff arm to every conservative effort to bring its programming back to the middle of the political spectrum.
Even in the face of a GOP-controlled Congress and a Republican president, the CPB was defiant in denying any bias. It suggested that decades of complaints from the right were nothing more than the fevered imagination of far-right activists.
For the record, I was not calling for the termination of funding of the CPB, which I thought could still be forced to reform itself. What I opposed was the continuation of funding for NPR as a state-subsidized media outlet. It was not the pronounced bias of NPR that I felt justified termination. This country should preserve a wall of separation between the government and the media, a view that even a former NPR CEO acknowledged recently as legitimate.
CPB is different. It funded a broader array of programming and could easily correct its course. For decades, all the CPB had to do is refocus on programming to appeal to the greatest cross section of the population and to decline to fund media programs like NPR that became more strident and partisan by the year. It seemed that the CPB was trapped within its own echo chambered existence.
On the left, the CPB was the hero institution standing up to social and political reactionaries. That is what CPB officials heard at cocktail parties and conferences. They heard little from the public outside of their core, narrow constituency. For individual administrators and board members, their status and success were tied to the very bias that was alienating most of America.
For them, the choice was clear between neutrality and nonexistence: they grabbed a hemlock-filled, NPR pledge mug and drank deeply.
They are not the only figures choosing death over social dishonor. Efforts to restore balance and neutrality at the Washington Post has led to a virtual revolt. Even after CEO William Lewis told staff that the newspaper was gushing readers and revenue, the staff refused to yield. He could not have put it more bluntly, telling them, “People are not reading your stuff.” In other words, they were writing for each other as readers were fleeing to other sources of news.
You would think that Washington Post writers would recognize that, if they wanted to be journalists, they would have to return to more neutral and objective reporting. It does not work that way. Many of these editors and writers had secured their very positions in rejecting neutrality and embracing advocacy journalism. By their own previously stated standards, a return to traditional journalism would be capitulation and cowardice. Thus, they would rather see the Post go insolvent than independent.
That takes us back to the CPB. The announcement of cessation was met with a chorus of wails and laments on the left. Yet, these are the same people who preferred this option to reforming the CPB to serve the greatest number of Americans.
NPR made the same choice. A few years ago, it was given the opportunity to select a new CEO who would represent a serious, centrist leadership for the failing news organization. Instead, the board doubled down on that very bias and selected Katherine Maher, who had a long history of inflammatory political attacks on conservatives and was the very embodiment of activism.
As late as a few months ago, CPB could have come forward with real reforms. Instead, PBS President Paula Kerger threatened legal action if Congress had the temerity to refuse to fund her organization. At the same time, she did nothing to distance herself from NPR, which was dragging down CPB like an anchor. Even as NPR’s Katherine Maher imploded before Congress, Kerger refused to budge.
The irony is that NPR is likely to survive in reduced form, appealing to a shrinking audience of predominantly white, affluent, liberal listeners in major cities.
Conversely, CPB is laying off its entire staff in a righteous, indignant huff. None of these people needed to lose their jobs if their leadership served their organization by listening to views beyond their own insular circle of enablers. The demise of the CPB now stands as the most impressive and unnecessary act of self-termination since the appearance of Judean People’s Front Crack Suicide Squad:
If those millions who petitioned Congress would pony up a few bucks each year, the CPB could have continued to function and spread whatever message they would want.
“If those millions who petitioned Congress would pony up a few bucks each year, the CPB could have continued to function and spread whatever message they would want.”
To the left, it’s a matter of their faith that you, the unwilling taxpayer, fund their priorities. This cannot even be questioned, witness the Medicaid/PP legal fiasco.
Aside from being a conduit for federal funds, what did CPB do? Presumably NPR and PBS can seek private funding, subscriptions or advertising revenue to make up for the federal funding, which they claimed was small.
“Presumably NPR and PBS can seek private funding, subscriptions or advertising revenue to make up for the federal funding”
Easier to get paid subscriptions before the USAID leftist slush fund was shut down. And how many ridiculously overpriced Politico and other leftist “news” subscriptions were the taxpayers funding?
Daniel,
Good point. Lets see how they do in the open free market. The Free Press went from a small, news by email from Bari Weiss to a modern, subscription based with over a million paying subscribers, had to hire more editors, more reporters/journalists and is one of the better ran and better content Independent media.
“The Free Press went from a small, news by email from Bari Weiss to a modern, subscription based with over a million paying subscribers, had to hire more editors, more reporters/journalists and is one of the better ran and better content Independent media.”
Leftist media hacks (excuse my repetition) believe that what they do is so important that they should not be subject to the horror of the free market. Kinda like Colbert and his “comedy” show.
George the serial liar, seemingly back after his humiliating prior week here, throwing his rhetorical non-weight around like he has any credibility. Keep on yakking George, nobody cares what a serial liar like you has to say about anything. And stop upvoting your own comments, you loser.
If sesame street gets axed, what will happen to Miss Piggy the democrat?
“what will happen to Miss Piggy the democrat?”
I just realized how much Miss Piggy resembles Hillary Clinton (on a good day for Clinton)…
In contrast to Corporate Main Stream RTF/ISV (Radio Television Film | Internet Streaming Video),
CPB ala PBS/NPR has a smooth svelte quality that One would not recognize as being seduced into the Left’s agenda.
In that respect, it was quite good at drawing-in and converting the Audience with the ‘Narrative’ of the Day.
Brainwashing, yeah definitely somewhat, but all-in-all it did do it’s dis-service to the Public as a co-member of the Corporate Media Community
(CPB, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, PBS, NPR, FOX, The Washington Post, The New York Times), that complimented the Gaps of Societal reasoning between these Outlets.
There’s never a vacuum, something will fill the void. Perhaps an A.I. Monster that’s so imperceptible we are fooled again.
Clearly virtue-signaling is far more important than success, or even survival. They must sneer at middle America to maintain their Euro-creds.
Sailing headlong into the rocks seems to be a hallmark of the Left. Some blaze of glory demise in service to some principle the rest of us see as decidely anti-American is pure insanity. Sail on Ship of Fools – until you can’t
The American progressive reminds me a great deal of the Cathars of medieval Europe. They, also, held fast to their improbable faith with a fervor that would eventually lead them to the pyre and refused to see that their eccentric beliefs were a threat to the peace of the land.
A common core of culture is essential for a sound society and the Cathars were a disruptor of such equilibrium; and eventually it was necessary to negate/eliminate their ideology. Finally we have enough citizens with the common sense to comprehend just where this progressive apostasy of our constitution has led this nation. The CPB was twisted from its original purpose and became one of the tools of the progressives to undermine the very essence of our founding father’s concept of freedom.
Progressivism is the antipathy of our nation and we may finally have become aware of the damage done and the steps needed to push this failed ideology to the netherworld of bad ideas. The Cathars fought to the death and I see the same fanaticism in our current crop of zealots. Rational thinking is not the path they will take so be prepared for a true battle – our own Albigensian Crusade.
I was going to respectfully address my comment to a few posters here that somehow confuse what this is all about, including “George”‘s comment about the Fairness Doctrine. I’m glad to see that commenter “currentsitguy” already corrected George, thank you currentsitguy!
While many of us applaud Trump’s action to eliminate any PUBLIC FUNDING of CPB and NPR broadcasts, this does not mean that they are dead in the water. They certainly can join the other cable, satellite, and Internet programming FOR WHICH SERVICES public consumers PAY. Indeed, in its appeal for public donations, NPR constantly derided how little it received from federal grants, so I’m sure that that insignificant loss will be well-replaced with more private, rather than public, support.
Their (CPB/NPR) specious and misleading inclusion of the word “public” in their titles -under the auspices of a term specifically implied that they operated “in the public interest,” – when in fact, much like cable, satellite, and Internet programming, their propagandistic programming clearly was of catered “interest” to only certain segments of the public.
THAT, in my mind, is/was their sin.
Let them join the other self-funded cable, satellite, and Internet programming like the others! We DO need diverse viewpoints so as to better inform our own!
(I forgot to add that George’s pseudo-allegation about what contributed to “the rise of FOX” networking is clearly lifted off the Internet, -but that premise has been repeatedly discredited and dismissed.)
We’ve asked serial liar George to provide evidence to back up his unverified assertions of bias in Fox News, and shockingly he still hasn’t given us any. I humbly suggest that George never will. Because he’s a serial liar.
Who is “we”? Evidece of Fox News Bias is everywhere. Fox News is essentially a propaganda arm do the Republican party. It was Fox News who helped Trump get elected to his first term and it was Fox News chose to settle with Dominion Voting Machines instead of going on trial knowing they were going to lose.
Fox News is so biased towards Trump and the right that quite a lot of Fox News employees ended up on Trump’s administration.
^^^ George as Anonymous, afraid to stand in front of the firing (job employment) squad
“Evidece [sic] of Fox News Bias is everywhere.”
Let’s see some “evidence” Georgie. It’s everywhere, so produce some. But you can’t, because you’re just a pathetic liar.
How many of O-dumber and Clintion folks went to CNN or MSNBC?
George, the “everdense” guy…
No, it hasn’t. Alleging that it has been discredited is all that’s been provided as a rebuttal.
“The Fairness Doctrine would not have applied to Fox NEws.”
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/jun/18/instagram-posts/dont-blame-ronald-reagan-for-fox-news-the-fairness/
also see
“Claim:The claim: The Fairness Doctrine ended under Ronald Reagan and spawned Fox News.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/11/28/fact-check-fairness-doctrine-applied-broadcast-licenses-not-cable/6439197002/
You missed the point. The fairness doctrine required broadcasters who received public funding to include an opposing view on controversial topics. It’s what Turley is advocting for. Republicans opposed it at the time because there were not a lot of broadcasters who did that and they falsely claimed it was a violation of free speech.
The repeal of the doctrine led to an increase in bias not just on public radio, and tv. but also broadcast companies. Republicaans claimed the free market would produce a more balanced and fair production of content. That did not occur and as it’s almost always the case with free market “ideas” it evolved into a series of monopolisitic corproations slowly absorbing smaller broadcasters. Fox News was created because there was a perception that the conservative view was not properly expressed. They even used the “Fair and Balanced” label when they were in fact not fair and balanced.
Turley gripes about the lack of objective journalism while taking a pay check from a news organization that does the exact opposite of what he claims we should be returning to. Good ol’ fashioned walter cronkite style news. But thanks to Fox News which forever changed news landscape with their 24/7 biased coverage it will never return to what Turley prefers. He’s become part of the problem.
“No, it hasn’t. Alleging that it has been discredited is all that’s been provided as a rebuttal.”
Oh Georgie, too scared to even post as yourself anymore? Since you won’t supply the supposed evidence, it’s hard to discredit it in advance. Have you ever heard of logic?
Lin,
Well said and spot on.
To add to your comment, one of the arguments we have been hearing from the leftists is how NPR is the “sole” source of news and sever weather updates for all us poor rural folks. Well, I used to, past tense, listen to NPR from sun up till dinner. Then 2016 happened, they went all in on advocacy journalism and we switched them off. As for sever weather, NOAA cuts in all the radio stations we get. No need for NPR.
*. I might have kept it open with a 1 dollar donation just in case sanity returns.
Lin, NPR only got 1-2% of it’s funding from government grants. The rest came from either individuals supporting it or funds from individual stations who got funds from the CPB. The CPB funding was used to support small stations that support small rural areas and public progaming. The allegation that they were not allowing or considering more consertative points of view is purely a political argument. We once had the Fairness Doctrine which would have addressed this issue. Even after being challenged in court by Republicans it was found to be constitutional. It was only when it was repealed by Reagan’s FCC that media started to become more biased to either to liberal or too conservative. If the Doctrine was still in force NPR wouldn’t have had the issue Turley complains about. I’m pretty sure Turley would be in full support of the Fairness Doctrine because it would do what he demands. Ensuring that all points of view are equally represented.
The Fairness Doctrine was repealed by Republicans because they believed it chilled free speech. Because it discouraged broadcasters from covering controversial issues and because of the burden of ensuring “fairness,” potentially hindering free speech rather than promoting it.
They also cited the increase of in broadcasters and they claimed the free market would take care of the issue of promoting diversity of views because it would allow people to decide. Problem is that never happened. It did the opposite and the “free market” approach ended up as it always does into a small group of corporate monopolies controlled by biased boards. This is how Fox News was created and why it’s heavily biased towards the right. This is not to say CNN or MSNBC are also biased, they are, but it’s a result of the free market with a bit of an exception to Fox News which is a propaganda arm of the Republican party. It always has been.
george
CNN News which is a propaganda arm of the Dem-o-rat party. It always has been.
Fixed it for ya.
jokin’ georgie, did you happen to read this in Lin’s comment before you tried to twist the issue?
“Indeed, in its appeal for public donations, NPR constantly derided how little it received from federal grants, so I’m sure that that insignificant loss will be well-replaced with more private, rather than public, support.”
Look everyone, it’s serial liar George here pretending that he wasn’t eviscerated last week with his endless lying and prevarication. George, when are you going to get around to showing us that Maxwell testimony that you doubled down on, where she lied “repeatedly” under oath in court? Where is her conviction for perjury? Oh that’s right, since you can’t define perjury, maybe you really don’t know. You’re such a pathetic, bald-faced liar George.
In Other News: “PBS to Hold ‘Final Telethon’ to pay for ferry service across the River Styx”
After the demise of the CPB left it without funds to conduct itself to an ultimate fate, the organization’s CFO attempted to negotiate a low fare solution for conveyance into the afterlife. Charon, the ferryman, sought an opportunity to cash in on the corporation’s arrogance and self-righteousness, and upped the fares.
Facing another financing crisis, the CPB directed PBS to hold a telethon fundraiser to raise the 50,000,000 drachma demanded by Charon for passage. While analysts at the corporation felt comfortable the telethon more likely could raise that amount, a surprise news conference given by Hades announced that he was imposing a 125% tariff on souls imported from the US.
Democrats, AGAIN, ran away from home to prevent democracy. This time in Texas.
It’s a party of over educated hypocritical clowns and buffoons. Exclusively.
It is weird how the D brand cult runs away from participating in Democracy. It’s rather undemocratic of them.
“It is weird how the D brand cult runs away from participating in Democracy. It’s rather undemocratic of them.”
Kinda like how they “save democracy” by removing undesirables from the ballot, thereby preventing people from being able to vote for who they want to. “Real democracy” is voting for only candidates on their pre-approved list.
“Democrats, AGAIN, ran away from home to prevent democracy. This time in Texas. ”
They tried, but Greg Abbott appears to be kicking their collective a$$…
I suggest that everyone take a quick look at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s most recent IRS Form 990. in 2023, several CPB employees were taking home $500K per year, and another dozen or so were clearing in excess of $250K per year. It’s great work if you can get it — thanks taxpayers!
WOW. No wonder we are broke.
I foresee certain universities will or may be faced with a decision to self-terminate or turn the clock back to a time when they were not as extreme left-wing influenced as they have allowed themselves to become. It’s not just Columbia, or Harvard, or Brown, or Cornell, or the University of Pennsylvania —At a time when media stars like Mike Rowe are telling our youth that a career in the ‘trades’ can be fulfilling and financial stable, who needs a college degree from an indoctrination center/university? No one.
“I foresee certain universities will or may be faced with a decision to self-terminate or turn the clock back to a time when they were not as extreme left-wing influenced as they have allowed themselves to become. ”
Ha! That would require some acknowledgement of the error of their ways, which would, in turn, be completely out of character. Here is their new strategy (lotsa luck with that one, clowns):
Colleges try new way to meet declining enrollment, revenue, partnering with senior-living providers
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/education/us-colleges-come-unique-solution-decline-enrollment
“Some U.S. colleges and universities facing declining enrollment, amid the country’s decreasing college-age population, have come up with a unique way to ease the problem – partnerships with senior-living providers.”
In truth, this was already going on as a result of demographic changes, but the recent spate of colleges and universities sh1tt1ng all over themselves in their eagerness to win the Wokist Sweepstakes ain’t going to help any…
Well said, Professor. That’s a far more eloquent obituary than the CPB deserved.
I hung onto my mother’s skirt as she watched Alistair Cooke and Ben Wattenberg.
Turley is celebrating the demise of a media company solely because the content of what they produced does not meet his political approval. I hope this is brought up on every mention of his book that he makes.
“Turley is celebrating the demise of a media company solely because the content of what they produced does not meet his political approval. I hope this is brought up on every mention of his book that he makes.”
He’s objecting to taxpayer money going to a government media organization. Such organizations should not exist, in his opinion, and every American should readily agree. It’s especially egregious because that government-paid media is decidedly one-sided, and no, that’s not “reality-based” programming or whatever label you try to apply. You just can’t see this basic fact because of your left-wing partisanship.
Solely because they were so completely far left biased that they did not deserve public funding. Really, no matter what they should not have any government funding.
Government media is un-American, period. I don’t care what way their bias goes, even if they’re somehow “down the middle”, it’s still wrong to use taxpayer dollars to fund any media organization.
You seem to have a reading comprehension issue.
“You seem to have a reading comprehension issue.”
When the facts don’t suit leftists, they just make some up. Witness our serial liar troll George for an example of that.
Either: 1) You are a liar; 2) you did not read the post; or 3) you read the post but did not comprehend and retain what you read. Likely a “graduate” of a failing government school.
Pick one.
“Either: 1) You are a liar; 2) you did not read the post; or 3) you read the post but did not comprehend and retain what you read. Likely a “graduate” of a failing government school.”
Maybe she grew up watching PBS and listening to NPR 😂
All cretins are liars.
We can thus assume CPB’s political bias content checked all your boxes then ?.
Wrong. Turley is stating what should be obvious to even the dullest among us, that forcing taxpayers to fund the operation of a politically-biased media outlet just shouldn’t happen. The sad part about it is that it took this long to make it right. Mainstream Americans never paid any attention to this leftist propaganda.
“Mainstream Americans never paid any attention to this leftist propaganda.”
It’s more insidious than that. I’ve known admittedly squishy Republicans who fell hard for the NPR/PBS claim of non-bias, and who over time drifted further and further to the left. The Overton Window in action.
Look at that folks, no credibility serial liar and prevaricator Georgie is back, and acting like anyone cares about whatever garbage he decides to spew today. How was your weekend, Georgie? Did you finally find that Maxwell testimony about which you repeatedly lied, when you said that she testified in open court and was convicted of perjury? How about that definition of perjury, did you spend any time over the weekend looking that up? Just go away you freaking loser, you stink up the place.
What was it the Post supposedly stood for?
Democracy dies in darkness? Well, apparently, leftist “advocacy journalism” dies in the brightness of daylight! Shine a light on them, and they run away like the cockroaches they really are! 😏
We’re still waiting for serial liar George to give us some examples of Fox News and their “advocacy journalism”. I’m guessing that we’ll be waiting for a long while.
The only news I want to read are the Russia Gate conspiracy indictments. Americans want accountability
The President and CEO of NPR: “Katherine Maher is the President and CEO of NPR, with deep experience leading public interest institutions through technological disruption and strategic transformation. Her areas of expertise include information and media, good governance and democracy, civil and human rights, international development and foreign policy.”
The rest of her bio on npr.org is filled with more fluff and zero experience running a communication company. No wonder NPR is what it is. . .She is the Pete Buttigieg of the communication business.
I”m surprised Turley never mentions the Fairness Doctrine because it did exactly what he wants. It required equal air time for opposing views. Ironically it was found to be constitutional until the FCC repealed it under Reagan in 1987. That resulted in more biased programming and eventually the rise of Fox News, the news outlet Turley never criticizes.
The tone of his article almost seems like he longs for modern version of the Fairness Doctrine.
HEY GEORGE. While you’re here pretending that you have any shred of credibility remaining after the beating that you took last week, could you please define perjury for us? Oh, that’s right, even when presented with the definition, you still can’t do it, and you’ll still double down on being wrong as usual. Tell me George, why should anyone read a single word from a proven serial liar like yourself?
O-yeah the Fairness Doctrine run by dem-o-rats. Just look at what they did to NPR.
Fair if far from it.
Don’t bother trying to have a reasoned conversation with a proven serial liar like George. Point and laugh at him pathetically acting like he wasn’t body slammed in the comments here last week.
Stop upvoting your own posts George. It’s beyond lame.
If you are going to advocate for a policy, could you at least cite examples that would be impacted by it? Fox News, along with CNN and MSNBC are cable networks outside of FCC regulation. They were never governed by the Fairness Doctrine and wouldn’t be today if it were insanely brought back.
Please don’t give George an opportunity to lie yet again. The only saving grace for George is that his constant lying is generally funny as hell. Because he’s so smart, as he likes to tell everyone.
The Fairness Doctrine is a matter of religious faith among the left. It’s useless to try to have a conversation about it with leftists.
“ Fox News, along with CNN and MSNBC are cable networks outside of FCC regulation. ”
Are you sure about that? The FCC regulates all telecommunication forms in the country. They issue the broadcast licenses of Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, NewsMax, etc. They can also regulate what can be broadcast to the public with regard to profanity, nudity, violence, etc. They can still impose fines over such content.
The Fairness Doctrine which was found to be constitutional. Was repealed because Republicans at the time did not want diversity of points of view “forced” onto the public. Turley’s arguement seems to strongly imply he longs for some version of it. He does complain about a lack of viewpoint diversity and forcing companies somehow to expand it. The irony is Reagan’s push to repeal the Fairness Doctrine led to the situation he complains about now.
Fox News is the biggest purveyor of advocacy journalism and he knows it. The problem is he cannot openly criticize Fox News because they pay him handsomely to offer his political analysis whenever they need justification for Trump’s bad policies. It makes him a wee bit of a hypocrite.
Hey George, you’re really smart, why can’t you give us a definition of perjury? You said that Maxwell lied under oath while on trial, and that she was convicted of perjury, but none of that actually happened, so we’re confused as to why you would come back here and act like you have any credibility left after all of your serial lying.
Hey George the serial liar.
How much did Turley make from Fox News last year?
Ahhhhhhh Fox news and other news sites call Turley and ask for his opinion.
Try again.
DustOff,
Correct. Like The Hill and USA Today. Hardly right wing, MAGA media. There was that other news site that was more center or center left, but did not last long. IIRC it was poorly managed.
Those networks don’t even have an FCC broadcast license. They don’t use public airwaves to broadcast at all, so no. Please don’t make things up.
Lets face it folks. George is just not that smart.
“George is just not that smart.”
He doesn’t even get to claim that he plays a smart person on TV 😂
So he didn’t stayed at a Holiday Inn? 🙃