John’s right.
The lack of political balance among public broadcasting supporters is clear in the WSJ editorial. Look at its conclusion:
“As the president’s popularity and approval ratings fall, his henchmen are trying to stifle the bad news and to silence a network that refuses to become his propaganda machine. Americans cannot let the administration destroy PBS and NPR.”
Must be the season for name-calling. Last week our military members were compared to Nazis and now constitutionally elected members of the House of Representatives are called henchmen.
This name-calling obscures the fact that, even with federal funding reduced, public broadcasting is awash in tax and private money. For example, UNC-TV gets $11 million-plus from the General Assembly.
The real tragedy is that after nearly 40 years and billions of federal and state tax funds, public broadcasting doesn?t have the moral courage to get off the public dole. A piece I wrote in today?s News & Observer demonstrates public broadcasters can easily stand on their own.