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It Is Time to Sell Public Broadcasting’s Airwaves
American Greatness ^ | September 6, 2025 | Thaddeus G. McCotter

Posted on 09/06/2025 1:16:50 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

In old 1980s horror movies, a knife-wielding, flannel-wearing serial killer is routinely killed—until he or she isn’t, and the franchise inexorably moves on to “Slasher the Sequel: This Time It’s Worse than Personal.”

I recall such mythic movie murderers not as a (literally) dead-end jaunt down memory lane but as a cautionary tale for Republicans and, indeed, all who hope to see the recent significant reductions in federal spending and, concomitantly, cuts in the administrative state’s bureaucracy to be made permanent. (The image of Elon Musk—the DOGE—clad in black and waving “the chainsaw for bureaucracy” is an irony worthy of the auteurs of the old French Nouvelle Vague.) Bluntly, these eliminations and reductions must be a solid first step—not an ephemeral swan song—in the effort to restore the primacy of citizens over their servant government.

Unless supporters of citizen-driven, responsive government pursue a vigilant, assiduous salting of the fields of the debilitated Deep State, the left—like Jason Voorhees and his homicidal celluloid ilk—will not only resurrect its administrative state Leviathan, but it will also expand its scope and control over the American people.

As it stands, our national debt is nearly $40 trillion. There are additional steps that President Trump and his administration can and must take to generate non-taxpayer revenue that can help address our crushing national debt.

Consider the case of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), and the next necessary step in ensuring the left cannot resurrect this outdated dinosaur from history’s dumpster.

President Trump needs to call for the development and, ultimately, sign an executive order directing the FCC to begin the process of working with Congress to sell at auction the radio and television spectrum currently being used by public broadcasting stations across the country. Logically, if the federal...

(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS:

Auctioning PBS’s taxpayer-owned spectrum could raise billions to cut debt and ensure the left’s bureaucratic horror show doesn’t return for a sequel.

1 posted on 09/06/2025 1:16:50 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

sell them, yes, but NOT to enemies, communist/nazis, or SorozNazi types.

the anti_American propaganda/sophisticated brain-washing would only get more pervasive


2 posted on 09/06/2025 1:29:30 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicians aren't born, they're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Al Jazeera will buy it all.

After defeating China in the auction.


3 posted on 09/06/2025 1:31:48 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: frank ballenger

All of these posts are fantastic sentiments!


4 posted on 09/06/2025 1:36:07 PM PDT by JeemBeau
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

1) No, it wouldn’t raise billions; they aren’t worth that much, and most of their value is their license which they get cheap for being public broadcasters

2) The author is deeply confused about what public broadcasting is. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting made grants to radio stations that were then obliged to buy public radio programs, typically some combination of National Public Radio, American Public Media (those Minnesota programs), and Pacifica Radio. CPB is gone, but those stations still exist, and they can still choose to buy programming from those stations. They have to pay for it with their own money, and there’s no threat of loss of money from CPB for choosing other types of programming. Unfortunately....

3) Most states also fund public radio programming.


5 posted on 09/06/2025 1:41:32 PM PDT by dangus
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Since NPR/PBS are now independent entities, they should at least be made to pay fair market value rent for the bandwidth they are using, just like any other business.


6 posted on 09/06/2025 1:42:03 PM PDT by rottndog (Posse Comitatus does not Trump the Constitution. )
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To: rottndog

You don’t understand how broadcasting works. The only “rent” paid by any US station, commercial or public, is an annual regulatory fee of a few thousand dollars. I’m sure the PBS donors will be happy to cough up those fees in return for another coffee mug or tote bag.


7 posted on 09/06/2025 1:57:33 PM PDT by bigbob (If thou doth eff around, thou wilt findeth out)
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To: bigbob

Panic and firings over breaking the code of silence has begun at one station I’ve heard about. Sounds like there were some ongoing “money shenanigans”.


8 posted on 09/06/2025 2:38:34 PM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Annnd....TRUMP IS RIGHT AGAIN.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

It is a good idea. I agree it would be a bad idea to sell them to foreign countries.


9 posted on 09/06/2025 2:42:54 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: rottndog
Public broadcasters receive licenses to use the spectrum from the FCC in exchange for fulfilling certain public-interest obligations, which include informing, educating, and enriching the public.

Which is now propaganda of the left. I oddly like PBS for their programs as do many others. Those programs will not die as they are a valuable commodity. Newtflix, Amazon, or others will pick them up.

Sell the spectrum. Even if leftist buy the spectrum it will be no worse than now.

10 posted on 09/06/2025 2:43:11 PM PDT by cpdiii (cane cutter, deckhand, oilfield roughneck, drilling fluid tech, geologist, pilot, pharmacist, MAGA)
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To: cpdiii

There’s a lot of private money that supports the Left these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if almost all public stations stay open.


11 posted on 09/06/2025 2:50:31 PM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Annnd....TRUMP IS RIGHT AGAIN.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Most PBS stations are run by Universities or Board of Regents. They are not directly owned by PBS.


12 posted on 09/06/2025 3:01:06 PM PDT by kaktuskid
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

0Sell, sell, sell! Not just this, but the USPS, real estate owned by the government, numerous assets we shouldn’t be involved in.


13 posted on 09/06/2025 4:08:50 PM PDT by spintreebob
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

They’re more brazen as ever, with whatever fig leaf of pretend objectivity tossed aside.


14 posted on 09/06/2025 4:13:21 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: JeemBeau

Meow.


15 posted on 09/06/2025 4:18:46 PM PDT by StAnDeliver (TrumpII)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

PBS is nowadays about as useful as a hand-crank ringer on a modern electric clothes dryer.


16 posted on 09/06/2025 4:21:09 PM PDT by Bullish (My tagline ran off with another man, but it's ok---- I wasn't married to it.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

There is no reason why the government should be in the broadcasting business.


17 posted on 09/06/2025 6:18:54 PM PDT by TBP (Decent people cannot fathom the amoral cruelty of the Democrat cult.)
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