Well, they’ve finally done it—Republicans have defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the congressionally-funded non-profit that operates the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio.  Note that this defunding is not a temporary executive order, one which a future Democratic President could undo with the stroke of a pen:  it’s part of Congress’s budget cutting, and the House holds the power of the purse.

Sure, it could all be undone, but it would require a Democratic President (or a RINO) and a Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate.  Those both might return someday, but for now, conservatives and champions of limited and small(er) government can relish this accomplishment.

The very notion of public broadcasting defies the claims of “objectivity.”  When the federal government pays the vast majority of your bills and your salary, you’re naturally going to side with the government’s implicit viewpoint.  Even when Republicans dominate Congress and the presidency, the vast majority of the federal government’s workforce is, at the very least, inherently pro-government, and to be pro-government is to be pro-expansion of the government.  Of course, these bureaucrats are overwhelmingly likely to be pro-Democratic and wildly Left-leaning in their political views.  Again, the Democratic Party is the party of big government; the Left is the ideology of toxic empathy, of giving away other people’s money in the name of justice, equality, equity, access, etc., etc.

The CPB’s received $1.1 billion in Congressional funding.  In terms of the overall federal budget, that’s a drop in the bucket.  If the government spends roughly $4 trillion a year, that’s only 2.75% of the federal budget.  The Left is surely shrieking that snarkily right now—“you’re not saving all that much money, and you’re KILLING PEOPLE who won’t have tornado warnings in their rural communities!!!”—but when it comes to cutting federal spending, any start is a good start.  If I’m accumulating debt at a rapid rate and living beyond my means, any cuts to spending, however small, will help; at worst, they will not deepen the harm.

But savings aside, the issue is not how much money will or won’t be saved; rather, it’s to ask whether or not the federal government should be involved in funding propaganda that a.) actively undermines the nation’s integrity and b.) disproportionately favors one political faction at the expense of another.  Any organization will, to some extent, be beholden to the persons or entities footing the majority of the bill (believe me, I’ve seen it in private education, where at least it’s the parents who have control via their pocketbooks, rather than Left-wing school employees and administrators).  No matter CPB’s supposed editorial “objectivity,” it will necessarily act as an organ of the government, and especially of the ideological leanings of the people working in the government.

Additionally, PBS and NPR do produce popular programming.  There’s absolutely no reason why Sesame Street cannot support itself the way every other children’s program does:  through advertising.  Indeed, the whole concept of “underwriting” is basically advertising already:  a corporation sponsors a show, and gets a plug in return.  Yes, modern advertising is corrosive and awful—I find myself booing aloud at most commercials—but it’s not going to hurt Junior any further to see another toy advertisement in between Elmo and Oscar the Grouch.

Besides, if all of the alleged millions of NPR listeners and PBS viewers who wrote to Congress hoping to save funding for the CPB sent in, say, five bucks each, CPB could easily get at least half of its prior funding from donations.  If people really care that much, they’ll pay a $5 or $10 monthly streaming fee to get PBS, or they’ll make a recurring donation to NPR.

Here is the only cultural loss I see:  NPR was the only reliable source of hearing classical music on the radio.  Classical music is, I would argue, worth preserving and celebrating, as it truly represents the best and most beautiful of Western music.  Classical music will survive in live symphony performances and in churches (especially the works of Bach, who was a Baroque composer, but I’m using “classical” here as an all-encompassing term to include the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and early Twentieth-Century schools of music), but the ability to hear it easily and frequently on the radio will be a loss.  The promotion of Western music via government funding is justified and worthwhile.

Sadly, it’s not in high demand as a product, but the market should not rule everything.  It’s sad that beautiful, interesting music is not popular or widely appreciated, and that people would rather listen to terrible rap music than the works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.; otherwise, classical music would be commercially viable.  It isn’t, but it’s worth preserving, so we should spend taxpayer money on it.

Even there, though, we have the Internet, with endless streaming options.  YouTube is full of videos of incredible performances of classical music—for free!  Internet access is broadly and cheaply available.  Even the most destitute of Americans have a phone and some data.

Regardless, the government should not be funding editorial programming that is anti-American and anti-American citizens.  Kudos to Congress for taking the sensible approach of defunding taxpayer-funded advocacy for the Democratic Party.