PBS and NPR are obsolete, activism-plagued shells of their original intent, teetering on the edge of fraud—and they need to be shut down immediately. The recent House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) hearing on March 26, 2025, exposed these taxpayer-funded broadcasters for what they’ve become: propaganda mills masquerading as public service. With the internet and private media filling every niche they once claimed, their unique purpose is gone. It’s time to pull the plug, and if any staffers are left scrambling, Elon Musk would surely toss them a free X account to vent their woes.
A History That’s Lost Its Relevance
PBS was born in 1967 from the Public Broadcasting Act, signed by Lyndon Johnson after the Carnegie Commission’s push for a non-commercial media haven. The idea? Educational content and universal access—Sesame Street for kids, news for rural folks—free from the ad-driven churn of ABC or CBS. NPR followed in 1970, piggybacking on the same mission with radio. It sounded noble when airwaves were scarce and gatekeepers ruled. But that was then. Today, YouTube, podcasts, and cable offer endless educational and cultural options—often better, cheaper, and without the sanctimonious veneer. PBS and NPR’s claim to uniqueness evaporated with the digital age, leaving them as bloated relics clinging to a bygone era.
Activism Over Objectivity
The DOGE hearing, chaired by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), laid bare the rot. PBS CEO Paula Kerger and NPR CEO Katherine Maher faced a barrage of GOP accusations—bias, elitism, and outright distortion. Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) cited a Media Research Center study showing PBS NewsHour’s 2024 convention coverage was 72% negative on Republicans and 88% positive on Democrats. Kerger dodged with platitudes about “serving all Americans,” but the numbers don’t lie. NPR’s Maher, meanwhile, got roasted for past tweets calling Trump a “deranged racist sociopath” and America “addicted to white supremacy”—hardly the neutral stance taxpayers expect from a $535 million annual handout via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
Then there’s the content itself. PBS caught flak for a “Let’s Learn” video with drag queen Lil Miss Hot Mess—Kerger claimed it was a local WNET project, not PBS-funded, but the optics scream agenda-driven overreach. NPR’s dismissal of the Hunter Biden laptop story (Maher admitted it was a misstep) and its fluff pieces on “gender queer dinosaur enthusiasts” (per Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas) cement the pattern: activism trumps journalism. These aren’t slip-ups; they’re symptoms of a diseased ethos where progressive talking points outweigh facts.
Fraud in the Funding?
The money trail raises red flags too. The CPB’s $535 million in 2025 flows to PBS (16% of its budget) and NPR stations (over 70% goes local), yet accountability’s murky. Republicans like Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) argue this props up a “leftist echo chamber” for a shrinking, elite audience—NPR’s listenership has dipped, and PBS’s viewership isn’t what it was. If rural stations need cash, fine—let private donors step up, as Heritage’s Michael Gonzalez suggested. But the whiff of fraud comes from how these funds are spent: on skewed coverage and niche pet projects while claiming “public good.” No audit’s confirmed outright theft, but the misalignment of mission and output smells like misuse. Taxpayers deserve better than bankrolling a biased boondoggle.
The Maher-Signal Nexus: A Trust Betrayal
NPR’s Maher adds a twist that stinks of deeper rot. Before NPR, she chaired Signal’s board—the encrypted app tied to a March 2025 scandal where Trump officials mishandled classified chats. Her past as a Wikimedia CEO pushing “disinformation” crackdowns and her Arab Spring work with the National Democratic Institute (a U.S.-backed outfit) paint her as a tech-political operative, not a journalist. X users like "@QueenMaga17862" call it a “tangled web”—is she a cog in a broader establishment machine? Her NPR role, paired with Signal’s government overlap, erodes trust. If PBS and NPR are this cozy with power, their “public service” claim is a sham.
Shut It Down—Now
The DOGE hearing ended with Greene and Comer pushing for “complete and total defunding and dismantling” of the CPB, backed by Trump and Musk’s “Defund NPR” drumbeat. They’re right. PBS and NPR don’t serve a unique purpose—private media does it all, without the baggage. Their activism poisons any pretense of neutrality, and the funding’s a questionable mess. Defenders like Alaska Public Media’s Ed Ulman cry that rural stations will die, but membership models and local fundraising can fill the gap—70% of PBS’s budget already comes from non-federal sources. The $535 million is a drop in the bucket next to, say, Medicare’s $83 billion in overcharges (per Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas), but it’s still too much for a diseased operation.
Shut them down immediately. No half-measures—axe the CPB, let the stations sink or swim. The internet’s democratized media; we don’t need these dinosaurs. The era of taxpayer-funded propaganda ends here.
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