New York Times columnist and the allegedly conservative half of PBS News Hour’s weekly Friday news recap, David Brooks, unleashed an unintentionally hilarious counterargument to Congress’s decision earlier in the week to rescind federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. According to Brooks, not only is PBS not on the left, but it also provides local news to the state of Maine.
Brooks began innocently enough by recalling his previous life at National Review and how conservatives have been trying for decades to strip partisan liberal organizations of their federal funding. However, now, he sought to protect his own, “And so that defund the left, which conservatives have talked about since I was a baby pundit many centuries ago, now they're actually doing it. The problem is that, say — well, we’ll talk about ourselves, Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Republicans have been going after that since diapers, since we were all on diapers.”
He then added, “But there were always enough Republicans who understood what Jonathan just said, that, ‘Hey, I'm in Maine here, and I like having some local media.” And so there was always that rump that would stop it. But that rump is gone. And so all the defunding the left that conservatives have been dreaming about for decades, now they're doing it.’”
The insinuation that if it weren’t for public broadcasting, Maine would be like some untouched tribe without the benefits of modern media is as hilarious as it is offensive. The Portland, Bangor, and Presque Isle markets all have private TV and radio options.
Brooks also lamented that anyone would associate PBS with the left, “And I should say perceived left. It's not always that the institutions they think are left are left. And anybody who doesn't agree with them is left. And so they're having their way.”
If a news organization is 27 times more likely to describe something as “far-right” than “far-left,” covers the Republican National Convention with 72 percent negativity compared to the Democratic National Convention at 88 percent positivity, and who’s “conservative” commentator voted for Barack Obama and still sounds like a liberal, then what is that if not a liberal outlet?
Here is a transcript for the July 18 show:
PBS News Hour
7/18/2025
7:44 PM ET
DAVID BROOKS: And so that defund the left, which conservatives have talked about since I was a baby pundit many centuries ago, now they're actually doing it. The problem is that, say — well, we’ll talk about ourselves, Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Republicans have been going after that since diapers, since we were all on diapers.
But there were always enough Republicans who understood what Jonathan just said, that, “Hey, I'm in Maine here, and I like having some local media.” And so there was always that rump that would stop it. But that rump is gone. And so all the defunding the left that conservatives have been dreaming about for decades, now they're doing it.
And I should say perceived left. It's not always that the institutions they think are left are left. And anybody who doesn't agree with them is left. And so they're having their way.
