“The whole point of taxes and government spending is to promote the general welfare, or so the standard theory runs,” Paul Jacob wrote two years ago. “But there’s nothing ‘general’ about the extreme sectarianism of ‘public radio and TV,’ with less well-to-do taxpayers subsidizing the far wealthier public media audience.”
That “extreme sectarianism” was on display this week in the hilarious questioning of Katherine Maher, Chief Executive Officer and President, National Public Radio, and Paula Kerger, Chief Executive Officer and President, Public Broadcasting Service.
This was part of the House Subcommittee on “Delivering Efficiency in Government,” which — like Elon Musk’s band of waste-cutters — initials down to DOGE:
A lot of this is hilarious. Must-see TV. Representative Jasmine Crockett was especially clueless in her comments, which have to be heard to be … believed?
Just remember what Paul’s said, though:
One shouldn’t need the latest ratcheting-up of the culture wars to oppose what we call, in America, “public radio and TV.” Taxpayer-subsidized broadcast media is a bad idea. Period. Full stop.
Defund NPR. Defund PBS. No more state-run or ‑subsidized media.
Paul Jacob, “Public TV Vetoed” (Common Sense, May 9, 2023).
1 reply on “Stop the Subsidy!”
Freedom of expression is the right to control the expressive use of one’s resources; and thus, as I said two years ago, no one who wants their resources not to be used for some expressive purposes should be made to contribute to such purposes.