Public broadcasting can’t escape the ‘bias’ police

Maybe you’ve heard, but public broadcasting is the scourge of our nation.

News reported on public airwaves is liberally biased. PBS Kids shows are little more than woke propaganda. The “Reading Rainbow” is an LGBTQ plot.

Public broadcasting is no longer needed because you can download a bunch of stuff online. Nobody listens to the radio or watches TV like in the old days. People listen to podcasts now or get their news from relatives on social media.

PBS and NPR stations no longer deserve public funding. Just like medical research, humanitarian aid to starving people and protecting the environment.

This month, Congress and President Donald Trump clawed back $1 billion in funding already approved for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which passes that money along to local public media stations.

It’s all very necessary to shrink the size of government, freeing up more money to grab people off the street and send them to South Sudan or Alligator Alcatraz.

Making America dumber and meaner appears to be the goal.

It’s very weird from my perspective. I discovered NPR in high school and have been listening ever since. My wife has been working in public radio for 30 years. We met covering a meeting for our respective outlets.

So yeah, I’m, gasp, biased. But I also know things.

For example, I know IPR producers and reporters make painstaking efforts to convince conservatives to be part of news stories and on talk shows. Often, Republicans will refuse to appear citing “bias.”

“Bias” has been a stick wielded at journalists for decades. Vice President Spiro Agnew called us “nattering nabobs of negativism.” Nixon hated the press, for obvious reasons.

It’s been 40 years since I first saw a bumper sticker warning us, “Don’t believe the liberal media,” courtesy of Rush Limbaugh.

But labeling news coverage “biased” has some clear political objectives.

First, bias allegations are meant to discredit reporting that makes conservatives and their leaders look bad. Kill the messenger.

Second, it’s a pass allowing Republican politicians to skip answering questions from reporters that might make them uncomfortable. Some Iowa Republicans refuse to attend League of Women Voters forums because they say the League is full of socialists. And women, who cannot be trusted.

Also, charges of bias can prompt some editors and reporters to pull punches for fear they will become a right-wing target.

After all, MAGA journalism standards are rigorous.

Use “Gulf of America” or you’ll be banished from White House events. Ask the president a question he doesn’t like, and he might try to get you fired. If your news organization runs a story or even edits an interview in a way that offends Trump, he’ll sue for tens of millions of dollars.

But if you were a MAGA loudmouth on Fox News, they’ll make you secretary of defense.

Conservative bias always is OK in the quest for “balance.”

The irony is public broadcasting in blue cities will survive. It’s small stations in rural red America who need public funding to remain on the air. But they will be remembered for making the supreme sacrifice to end media bias. That’s patriotism.

Iowa’s public radio network will survive the cuts. The remarkable amount of work journalists and producers do to cover the state will not disappear. I know how much effort goes into the local content you hear. Look across the media landscape and tell me quality reporting is no longer needed.

Also, if you think there is liberal bias all around you, unlike 20 years ago, is it possible you have changed, not public broadcasting? I know, that question is so biased.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com