Why Do Republicans Hate CPB, PBS and NPR?

The Republicans in Congress just voted to de-fund the public media organizations CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting), PBS (Public Broadcasting System, domestic TV service) and NPR (National Public Radio).  These media organizations were established by Congress decades ago.  For much of the time since then Republicans have complained that they are biased "liberal" media and they are unfair to Republicans and Conservatives.  

As a long time regular viewer of PBS and a listener of NPR, I disagree.  PBS shows a wide variety of shows including Sesame Street, Daniel Tiger, Ken Burns documentaries, Master Piece Theater, and some news, political and cultural shows.  The news shows seem to me to be very fair and balanced unlike FOX news or MSNBC.  NPR provides many shows including news, weather, science, entertainment, etc.  In many rural areas NPR may be a primary provider of news and weather.

I have been confused by the vehement hatred of these public media outlets by Republicans/Conservatives.

I think I've figured out why Republicans hate them. 

I asked ChatGPT to summarize principles of Democrats and  Republicans.  You can click on the links to see its answers.  I also asked ChatGPT to make a summary list to compare Democratic and Republican principles.  Finally I asked ChatGPT to define the principles of a Liberal Democracy.  You can read these to get a more detailed description of each.

According to ChatGPT":

Democrats tend to emphasize:

• Collective responsibility through government action,
• Equity and inclusion for historically marginalized groups,
• Public investment in health, education, and the environment,
• And a belief that government can and should help level the playing field for all Americans.

In essence, a liberal democracy blends majority rule with minority rights, ensuring that even unpopular groups have their basic freedoms safeguarded.

The principles of the "liberal" Democratic party seem to more closely align with ChatGPT's description of a liberal democracy.  So Republican's consider any institutions that believe in the ideals of a liberal democracy to be biased towards and aligned with Democrats.  But sorry Republicans, the U.S. Constitution was designed to define a liberal democracy for the United States.  This was long before the Democratic Party was created.  The founders fell short of a liberal democracy in some areas (slavery, universal suffrage), but until recently we have been moving forward to complete the project (more about this in future posts).

We have a First Amendment which guarantees free speech, but which party likes to ban books?  Which party believes in an historical interpretation of the Constitution and then chooses to ignore the opening clause of the Second Amendment?  

Which party is the worst proponent of gerrymandering?  I know Democrats have also been guilty of gerrymandering, but it is Texas Republicans who are trying to take gerrymandering to a new level.  

Which party would like to implement universal health care?  Which party wants to cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP?  In the current environment, which party is standing up for rule of law and due process?  Which party is trying to destroy the principle of separation of powers?  Which party has neutered congressional oversight?  Which party is trying to make courts impotent?  Which party is trying support medical science? Which party is trying to keep independent agencies like the DOJ and FBI truly independent and not subject to executive pressure? Which party believes in the unitary executive?  Which party is trying to mitigate climate change?  Which party has been more willing to get big money out of politics? Which party is more interested in funding early education (like Head Start).   Which party is trying to fund food for school children?  Which party is trying to destroy our world class higher education system?

So Republicans hate CPB, PBS and NPR because these organizations work very hard to provide objective information and services that reflect the ideas of Constitution and the people of this country.  They may not always be perfect, but they are always working to be provide facts and objective truth. 

And Republicans hate them for this.

Name one!

Tonight on Hardball with Chris Matthews former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan admitted that the White House would feed talking points directly to Fox News - Fox commentators, not journalists. When Matthews displayed outrage, McClellan again stressed that the White House didn't feed this kind of propaganda to the journalists at Fox.

Really?

There are real journalists at Fox?

Name one.

Fox-Fair, Balanced and Hypocritical?

Watching Fox News [sic] Sunday today generated a couple of thoughts.

The panel talked about the significant news coverage that the major networks are giving Senator Obama's current foreign trip. While the "liberal media" whining was not as pronounced as I expected, their was consternation that even since the end of the Democratic presidential campaign the coverage of Senator Obama on the major networks has been significantly more extensive than the coverage of Senator McCain. This was from a panel that itself seemed to me was talking a lot more about Senator Obama than Senator McCain.

The untimely death of Tony Snow gave Vice-President Cheney a chance to laud his many accomplishments. Among those was this quote, "...he was a major player in the conservative movement." Tony Snow was the founding anchor of Fox News [sic] Sunday. I guess bias in the media, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

News Or Opinion?

On the January 4 Scarborough Country show on NBC, Joe did a segment on Bill O'Reilly's ranting about bias at NBC. Bill claimed everybody at NBC hates President Bush. I don't think that's fair and balanced. I wonder what Bill would say about a claim that everybody at Fox loves President Bush.

Joe Scarborough had a guest, author Bob Kohn. Mr. Kohn claimed as proof of NBC's bias a statement by NBC's respected, veteran journalist and on-air reporter Richard Engel that Saddam Hussein's execution was a "PR disaster". Mr. Kohn asserted that this was clearly biased reporting.

According to Mr. Kohn, Richard Engel could have removed the bias by adding a phrase like "some people said the execution was a" in front of "PR disaster".

Now that would have really convinced me I was listening to objective reporting. Mr. Kohn clearly didn't convince me I should buy his book.

He inadvertently gave a better example of bias when he made the case that Saddam Hussein was a very bad person and history will remember how many people he killed, not how he died. Kohn's point was that the important story was the execution of a terrible dictator who killed many people. That statement clearly shows how Mr. Kohn would have added his bias to the story. I think news reports over many years have established that Saddam Hussein was a very bad person who killed many people and who deserved to die. That is no longer news. His execution and reactions to it was news.

Bias is always present in reporting. It is sometimes overt, but more often it is subtle. Which stories get covered? What angle and aspects of a story are covered? When you show a picture of a person, do you show one that is flattering or one that makes the person look malevolent? As an example, note which pictures of Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi are shown. Ask yourself if that picture might show a bias.

True news organizations and journalists work very hard to report accurately and objectively.

A respectable news paper clearly differentiates news from opinion. There is an opinion section and there are news sections. The cable news shows mix news and opinion into a witches brew that only the dedicated viewer can separate. I suggest that all media find ways to clearly identify which segments are news and should be held to high standards of objectivity and which are opinion.

It is current practice to clutter the edges of the screen with all kinds of "information". How about the word "Opinion" in big letters on the screen?

Today on Fox there was a segment where a guest commentator lambasted Nancy Pelosi for hypocrisy. She objected to Nancy Pelosi surrounding herself with children at the swearing in ceremony last week. How could Nancy Pelosi, a strong proponent of abortion rights, dare to act like she really cared about children? Obviously, people who support a woman's right to choose must hate all children. Only Fox would give such a lunatic air time.

As bad as that was, just prior to the segment was a full screen shot of the word "NEWS". You can only laugh when anyone at Fox complains about news media bias. I suggest that Fox indicate an objective news segment by replacing that annoying, rotating FOX News icon on the lower left of the screen with a yellow non-rotating icon that indicates that this segment is objective news.

Never mind. Now that I think about it I realize they've already done that. You've seen that yellow box haven't you?

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