NewsBusters is taking a victory lap for the House vote to claw back funding for PBS and NPR. But the media didn't seem to want to mention it. ABC and NBC skipped, and CBS threw in a brief on CBS Evening News Plus.
The New York Times and The Washington Post had no story at all in the A sections of their papers. (The Washington Times put it on the front page.)
NPR's own coverage included media reporter David Folkenflik offering the usual balderdash. "Conservative activists" are "saying NPR and PBS have a liberal bias. The networks reject that, saying they seek fairness in reflecting and covering the American experience."
They don't seek fairness. They're nowhere close to it. They're seeking to be a bold voice for liberals. You can deduce their goal by consuming their "news."
PBS and NPR have constantly pleaded to Congress and the public that defunding these networks would hit rural communities the hardest. The Washington Post picked up on that line as reporter Philip Marley went to my neck of Wisconsin and suggested this defunding could be bad because "other radio signals are staticky and internet service can be patchy." They'd be "poorer" without the "independent option" of NPR. That's the NPR PR.
The story was bylined Westby, Wisconsin -- six miles north of my hometown of Viroqua, where my father Jim Graham helped found the radio station in 1958. Its signal is not "staticky" in Westby, unless maybe someone is living in a cave.
This is what big-city Democrats do, imply that people in more rural communities apparently have no private TV and radio options, not to mention all the "patchy" internet and streaming options. Their problem, as the Post story reported, is that young Americans have tuned out broadcast TV and radio, suggesting PBS and NPR aren't connecting with many young Americans.
Enjoy the podcast below or wherever you listen to podcasts. Since we're talking about Wisconsin, you could grab a glass of milk to listen.
