“These organizations are using taxpayer money to advance their own political agendas.”
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) penned this op-ed in the Ouachita Citizen arguing that Congress should defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and, in turn, National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Key excerpts of the op-ed are below:
“One would think that receiving billions of dollars from taxpayers would motivate NPR and PBS to publish fair reporting that the American people can use. Instead, these organizations have consistently promoted ideas that reflect their own personal political beliefs, without attempting to provide the other side. These organizations are using taxpayer money to advance their own political agendas.”
. . .
“Even if the content on NPR and PBS was fair, the American people no longer need public broadcasting to access the news of the day. With more than $37 trillion in federal debt, the idea of giving these organizations a single penny is bone-deep, down-to-the-marrow stupid.
“That’s why President Trump has paused federal funding to NPR and PBS through an executive order. He also recently asked Congress to formally rescind its funding of these public broadcasting entities—and the Senate should jump on this opportunity to pass President Trump’s rescission request on all his planned spending cuts as soon as possible. This would allow the Trump administration to cut off any money that the last Democrat-controlled Congress already allocated to the CPB and, in turn, NPR and PBS, in 2025.
“To make sure no new money is allocated to the CPB moving forward, I introduced the No Propaganda Act. This bill would permanently defund the CPB.
“The federal government has no business funding media companies. It’s time to stop picking winners and losers and defund public broadcasting for good.”
Read Kennedy’s op-ed here.
