As I See It
White House targets public broadcasting for funding cuts
If you’ve lived in the upper Midwest a long time, there’s a good chance you’ve spent a Saturday night listening to a fellow on the radio say ‘It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon.’
Of course, you would have been listening to public radio.
Or you could like watching public TV for Sesame Street, or old Lawrence Welk reruns.
Public broadcasting hasn’t been around forever, but it’s pretty well established, and naturally it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. But some in the U.S. really don’t like it. For example, the president of the United States.
The White House sent out a news release with the headline ‘President Trump Finally Ends the Madness of NPR, PBS.’
Meaning, Trump has signed an executive order ending taxpayer funding for the public networks, claiming that public radio and TV push ‘radical, woke propaganda’ and pretend it’s news.
Mr. Trump has said he would be ‘honored’ to see the funding end, and apparently, see the public networks end, because there’s plenty of other media, and we don’t need it.
And it’s argued that public broadcasting news reportedly criticizes the right more often than the left.
But what about the programs that aren’t news?
Do we really want to shut down the channels that have brought us Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk and Mister Rogers?
I’m not sure that would be a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
As I see it, I’m Brad Williams.
John
May 5, 2025 at 6:17 am
Brad,
I don’t disagree with some of your thoughts for a family of 6 and no internet or WiFi we do watch some PBS but it’s not the end of the world to see the news casts to be gone. We don’t watch the news programs. We do watch the media old reruns of solid shows that were made in the 90’s or some documentary. If you do watch anything made within the last 10 years you will notice there is always a political bias in it. PBS has done it to it self. Taxpayer things should be neutral and it is sad that a journalist can’t see this and only live in his own vacuum.
Please keep Mr. Roger’s out of this he hasn’t been on it for years. Sesame Street is t what it used to be. We don’t let our kids watch that now a days because of certain things that have been introduced. Pretty sad that parents can’t trust kids shows to teach the abc’s and numbers.
As a family of 6 we will miss the guy in Alaska building his house on his own but we will live.
PBS and NPR did it to themselves and others should learn the taxpayer is done paying for your mediocre news and bias inputs to things that don’t need it
nick
May 5, 2025 at 8:58 am
NPR and PBS have done this to themselves. They have a lot of good programming but then there is the news. The new President or whatever she is called was hauled before Congress. Her stance was that I have not been long but made no promises.
They could save a lot of taxpayer money by cutting out news. Their news is the to the Democratic party what PRAVDA was to the communist party of Russia- a TOTAL PROPAGANDA MACHINE.
Bill
May 5, 2025 at 10:11 am
The good parts of PBS-Masterpiece Theatre and others-are already sponsored by Cunard and pledges-and will likely be picked up on another network.
PBS will try to make it sound like it’s programming will disappear forever and that’s not true. Just it’s leftist-tilt news. They had a choice to make and they made the wrong one. Tax dollars should not support opinionated news of a left bent. Trump is not the first one to threaten it’s end; just the first one to do it.
Greg
May 5, 2025 at 1:42 pm
I find myself turning off NPR or WNPR much more in the past 10-15 years. I rarely listen now. The content and people are too biased. It turned into the left’s Sean Hannity show. This is coming from a liberal/independent voter.
walden
May 5, 2025 at 4:49 pm
I’ve heard no rationale or justification for continued taxpayer support for CPB/NPR/PBS. This has been a long time coming. Ditto for Wisconsin Public Radio. In an era of millions of alternative news and programming options, these outfits, like many government programs, are zombies from an era past and taxpayer support needs to be stopped.
…and then there is their tainted “news” programming to consider. It’s nothing short of NY Times propaganda for the masses.
However, these outfits will be forced to change but will live on funded by private donations and advertising revenue so spare us the Lefty panic attacks.
Kevin
May 6, 2025 at 8:39 am
As a contract engineer I would put miles on my car traveling to customer sites.
I would listen to NPR in the morning on the way to client sites. Y the time I go there I thought, what’s the use. We are just going to blow are selves up, poison are selves or burn up in the climate change apocalypse. The NPR folks never had anything optimistic to say about anything.
I would listen to Michael Savage during the ride home. By the time I got home I was so damn mad at the politicians and liberal voters I could barely see straight!
Finally, the radio broke and I never fixed it. Felt much better! Worlds going to hell and we can’t stop it.
The stupid people procreate faster than the people with common sense, the academic people are too damn intelligent to listen to anyone else, and the politicians just want to suck the life out of everything.
The news media couldn’t tell you the truth if their lives depended upon it, about anything!
The saving grace for humanity is Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Definitely not the new pope, the political parties, or the benevolent schools and businesses worrying about your pronouns!