Posted on 07/28/2025 8:27:37 PM PDT by DoodleBob
Champions of the almost entirely party-line vote in the U.S. Senate to erase US$1.1 billion in already approved funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting called their action a refusal to subsidize liberal media.
“Public broadcasting has long been overtaken by partisan activists,” said U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, insisting there is no need for government to fund what he regards as biased media. “If you want to watch the left-wing propaganda, turn on MSNBC,” Cruz said.
Accusing the media of liberal bias has been a consistent conservative complaint since the civil rights era, when white Southerners insisted news outlets were slanting their stories against segregation. During his presidential campaign in 1964, U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona complained that the media was against him, an accusation that has been repeated by every Republican presidential candidate since.
But those charges of bias rarely survive empirical scrutiny.
As chair of a public policy institute devoted to strengthening deliberative democracy, I have written two books about the media and the presidency, and another about media ethics. My research traces how news institutions shape civic life and why healthy democracies rely on journalism that is independent of both market pressure and partisan talking points.
That independence in the United States – enshrined in the press freedom clause of the First Amendment – gives journalists the ability to hold government accountable, expose abuses of power and thereby support democracy.
Ad Fontes Media, a self-described “public benefit company” whose mission is to rate media for credibility and bias, have placed the reporting of “PBS NewsHour” under 10 points left of the ideological center. They label it as both “reliable” and based in “analysis/fact.” “Fox and Friends,” by contrast, the popular morning show on Fox News, is nearly 20 points to the right. The scale starts at zero and runs 42 points to the left to measure progressive bias and 42 points to the right to measure conservative bias. Ratings are provided by three-person panels comprising left-, right- and center-leaning reviewers.
A 2020 peer-reviewed study in Science Advances that tracked more than 6,000 political reporters likewise found “no evidence of liberal media bias” in the stories they chose to cover, even though most journalists are more left-leaning than the rest of the population.
A similar 2016 study published in Public Opinion Quarterly said that media are more similar than dissimilar and, excepting political scandals, “major news organizations present topics in a largely nonpartisan manner, casting neither Democrats nor Republicans in a particularly favorable or unfavorable light.”
Surveys show public media’s audiences do not see it as biased. A national poll of likely voters released July 14, 2025, found that 53% of respondents trust public media to report news “fully, accurately and fairly,” while only 35% extend that trust to “the media in general.” A majority also opposed eliminating federal support.
Contrast these numbers with attitudes about public broadcasters such as MTVA in Hungary or the TVP in Poland, where the state controls most content. Protests in Budapest October 2024 drew thousands demanding an end to “propaganda.” Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism reports that TVP is the least trusted news outlet in the country.
While critics sometimes conflate American public broadcasting with state-run outlets, the structures are very different.
In state-run media systems, a government agency hires editors, dictates coverage and provides full funding from the treasury. Public officials determine – or make up – what is newsworthy. Individual media operations survive only so long as the party in power is happy.
Public broadcasting in the U.S. works in almost exactly the opposite way: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a private nonprofit with a statutory “firewall” that forbids political interference.
More than 70% of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s federal appropriation for 2025 of US$1.1 billion flows through to roughly 1,500 independently governed local stations, most of which are NPR or PBS affiliates but some of which are unaffiliated community broadcasters. CPB headquarters retains only about 5% of that federal funding.
Stations survive by combining this modest federal grant money with listener donations, underwriting and foundation support. That creates a diversified revenue mix that further safeguards their editorial freedom.
And while stations share content, each also has latitude when it comes to programming and news coverage, especially at the local level.
As a public-private partnership, individual communities mostly own the public broadcasting system and its affiliate stations. Congress allocates funds, while community nonprofits, university boards, state authorities or other local license holders actually own and run the stations. Individual monthly donors are often called “members” and sometimes have voting rights in station-governance matters. Membership contributions make up the largest share of revenue for most stations, providing another safeguard for editorial independence.
And then there are public media’s critical benefits to democracy itself.
A 2021 report from the European Broadcasting Union links public broadcasting with higher voter turnout, better factual knowledge and lower susceptibility to extremist rhetoric.
Experts warn that even small cuts will exacerbate an already pernicious problem with political disinformation in the U.S., as citizens lose access to free information that fosters media literacy and encourages trust across demographics.
In many ways, public media remains the last broadly shared civic commons. It is both commercial-free and independently edited.
Another study, by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School in 2022, affirmed that “countries with independent and well-funded public broadcasting systems also consistently have stronger democracies.”
The study highlighted how public media works to bridge divides and foster understanding across polarized groups. Unlike commercial media, where the profit motive often creates incentives to emphasize conflict and sensationalism, public media generally seeks to provide balanced perspectives that encourage dialogue and mutual respect. Reports are often longer and more in-depth than those by other news outlets.
Such attention to nuance provides a critical counterweight to the fragmented, often hyperpartisan news bubbles that pervade cable news and social media. And this skillful, more balanced treatment helps to ameliorate political polarization and misinformation.
In all, public media’s unique structure and mission make democracy healthier in the U.S. and across the world. Public media prioritizes education and civic enlightenment. It gives citizens important tools for navigating complex issues to make informed decisions – whether those decisions are about whom to vote for or about public policy itself. Maintaining and strengthening public broadcasting preserves media diversity and advances important principles of self-government.
Congress’ cuts to public broadcasting will diminish the range and volume of the free press and the independent reporting it provides. Ronald Reagan once described a free press as vital for the United States to succeed in its “noble experiment in self-government.” From that perspective, more independent reporting – not less – will prove the best remedy for any worry about partisan spin.
On the NPR CEO’s challenge to identify bias at NPR, all we need is to see the first four words in this article: https://www.npr.org/2025/07/15/nx-s1-5464737/stacey-abrams-coded-justice
Political strategist Stacey Abrams
Really?
Even MSLSD called her “Author and former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams”.
Further, per NPR’s archives, before his re-election it was “former President Donald Trump.” They still refer to Michelle’s husband as “former President Barack Obama.” Pelosi is called either “former Speaker” or - get a load of this - “Speaker Emerita”. Newt gets called “former U.S. House Speaker”.
> PBS and NPR are generally unbiased… <
I think I know what’s going on here. The author is auditioning for a job with the satire site “The Babylon Bee”.
🐝
Well done, Ms. Martin!
“It has been found in a study that the US Department of Lies and Gaslighting actually doesn’t lie or gaslight at all.”
The left almost always thinks they are unbiased, right down the middle and always correct. They have about zero ability to self examine. The self delusion is strong.
KUHT Houston America’s first public (non-commercial) television (not PBS) station went on air in Houston, Texas on May 25, 1953.
https://www.pbs.org/spacestation/production/kuht.htm
The Bee is so funny!
I used to love and financially support public broadcasting.
However, the constant calls for more leftist funding on “Morning Edition” sickened me. In the past these calls were made in the last 15 minutes of a two-hour program.
Ordinary people should expect to have to pay for the costs of ordinary life.
Ad Fontes Media:
“ In June of 2025, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued civil investigative demand (CID) letters to several media rating firms, including Ad Fontes Media, requiring them to disclose details about their operations, finances, methodologies, and industry relationships. ”
Science Advanves:
“The journal was announced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February 2014, and the first articles were published in early 2015.[1][2][3] In 2019, Science Advances surpassed Science Magazine in the number of monthly submissions, becoming the largest member in the Science family of journals. It is the only member of that family where all papers are gold open access.”
Public Opinion Quarterly:
“ Public Opinion Quarterly is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Oxford University Press for the American Association for Public Opinion Research, covering communication studies, political science, current public opinion, and survey research and methodology. It was established in 1937[1] ”
They’re circling the wagons.
Alternate Article Title: “When the Biased Argue How Unbiased They Are”
Talk about delusional !!!
What world do these people live in???
allow me to counter
cut the funding anyway
https://www.amazon.com/Republican-Like-Me-Liberal-Learned/dp/0062460781
“....In this controversial National Bestseller, the former CEO of NPR sets out for conservative America wondering why these people are so wrong about everything. It turns out, they aren't.
Ken Stern watched the increasing polarization of our country with growing concern. As a longtime partisan Democrat himself, he felt forced to acknowledge that his own views were too parochial, too absent of any exposure to the “other side.” In fact, his urban neighborhood is so liberal, he couldn't find a single Republican—even by asking around.
So for one year, he crossed the aisle to spend time listening, talking, and praying with Republicans of all stripes. With his mind open and his dial tuned to the right, he went to evangelical churches, shot a hog in Texas, stood in pit row at a NASCAR race, hung out at Tea Party meetings and sat in on Steve Bannon’s radio show. He also read up on conservative wonkery and consulted with the smartest people the right has to offer.
What happens when a liberal sets out to look at issues from a conservative perspective? Some of his dearly cherished assumptions about the right slipped away. Republican Like Me reveals what lead him to change his mind, and his view of an increasingly polarized America. ..”
“We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.”
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
In other news, I hear there’s a bridge in Brooklyn that’s for sale.
Leftist #2: "Exactly - Republicans are genocidal nazi Hitlerites, that's just a fact!"
(/s)
Really Stephanie? This is too rich.
I stopped listening to NPR about 15 years ago.
Seem about every tenth issue discussed or reported on pushed the homosexual agenda.
I just got fed up with them pushing that garbage.
At that point I resented them using my money for their crap.
When my three sons were in junior high and high school one of their favorite road trip activities was known as "The Left's View of the News". We would turn on NPR for fifteen minutes max. "All Things Considered", "Morning Edition", and "Fresh Air" were their favorites. After a while they looked forward to these fifteen minutes as comedy extraordinaire.
Easy questions for NPR/Ms. Martin to help prove her unbias argument: When is the last time NPR started a weekday top-of-the-hour segment with a pro-2nd Amendment/good-guy-with-a-gun story? Or a pro-Trump story? How about a pro-oil-and-gas story? Used the term “illegal alien”? So many easy questions to help her argument.
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