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Congress Should Stop Funding PBS

<p>Public Broadcasting Service &lpar;PBS&rpar; is American public television&rsquo&semi;s most prominent programming provider&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>PBS is a non-profit organization that receives about 15&percnt; of its funding from the government&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Everyone understands that National Public Radio &lpar;NPR&rpar; &ndash&semi; which also receives some federal funding &ndash&semi; is operated by and for the Left&period; But according to PBS&rsquo&semi;s official statement on &ldquo&semi;Editorial Standards and Policies&comma;&rdquo&semi; PBS&&num;8217&semi;s content depends on the &ldquo&semi;intention to inform&comma; not to propagandize&period;&rdquo&semi; All journalists are supposedly held to fairness&comma; accuracy&comma; and objectivity&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This claim ironic in light of the news that PBS Vice President Toby Chaudhuri has joined forces with &&num;8220&semi;Lawyers for Good Government&&num;8221&semi; &ndash&semi; group of 120&comma;000 law professionals preparing to &ldquo&semi;challenge and resist the Trump Administration&rsquo&semi;s anticipated abuses of power and attacks on human rights&&num;8221&semi; &lpar;quote from Traci Feit Love&comma; the group&&num;8217&semi;s founder&rpar;&period; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;It is obvious&hellip&semi;that this conference is a partisan gathering intended to organize political resistance to Donald Trump and Republican legislators&comma;&rdquo&semi; reports <em>National Review&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The truth is also obvious when you look at the group&rsquo&semi;s upcoming session&comma; entitled &ldquo&semi;The Reality of 2018 and the Hope for 2020&comma;&rdquo&semi; which features one Democratic speaker and no Republican counterpart&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>PBS&rsquo&semi;s Toby Chaudhuri is the featured speaker in another upcoming session on &ldquo&semi;Communications Strategy in the Era of Fake News&period;&rdquo&semi; During his talk&comma; Chaudhuri will advise a purely liberal audience about how to &ldquo&semi;organize their communications strategy to benefit their side of the political aisle&comma;&rdquo&semi; reports <em>National Review&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This does not mesh with PBS&rsquo&semi;s standards &lpar;mentioned above&rpar;&period; Chaudhuri&rsquo&semi;s involvement with &&num;8220&semi;Lawyers for Good Government&&num;8221&semi; raises serious questions about the accuracy&comma; objectivity&comma; fairness&comma; and partisanship of PBS&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When Congress discusses funding for PBS in its next budget&comma; members should consider whether Americans &ndash&semi; especially those who voted red &ndash&semi; should be forced to subsidize PBS &lpar;or Chaudhuri&rsquo&semi;s salary&rpar;&period; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>PBS&&num;8217&semi;s Biased Study on Election Results&nbsp&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As I reported shortly after the presidential election&comma; biased polling played a huge role in Hillary Clinton&rsquo&semi;s defeat&period; The world was certain she would win&comma; and she didn&rsquo&semi;t&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>PBS published a study with a similar claim &ndash&semi; that election coverage was skewed by &ldquo&semi;journalistic bias&period;&rdquo&semi; In the article linked below&comma; <em>Frontline<&sol;em> reporter Sarah Childress argues that &ldquo&semi;journalistic bias&comma;&&num;8221&semi; evinced by the over-coverage of Trump and the Hillary v Trump contest&comma; contributed to Trump&&num;8217&semi;s victory&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The report found that &ldquo&semi;Trump dominated media coverage&rdquo&semi; even &ldquo&semi;before the primaries began&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;Trump might have won the Republican nomination in any case&comma;&rdquo&semi; says the report&comma;&rdquo&semi; but one of his assets&comma; certainly&comma; was his press advantage&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The report argues that Sanders and Clinton were &ldquo&semi;overshadowed&rdquo&semi; by the dramatic GOP race&period; Sanders may have been overshadowed&comma; but as far as I can tell Hillary was in the spotlight during the months leading up to the election&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Childress argues that Trump continued to dominate the headlines even after his nomination&period; &ldquo&semi;Although Trump no longer had active opposition&comma; he received more news coverage in the last month than did either Clinton or Sanders&comma; a development that has no possible explanation other than journalistic bias&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This report is interesting &lpar;and I would say&comma; biased&rpar; in that it blames the media&&num;8217&semi;s supposed &&num;8220&semi;over-coverage&&num;8221&semi; of Trump for Trump&&num;8217&semi;s victory&comma; whereas other sources have blamed the liberal media&&num;8217&semi;s skewed polling and over confidence in Hillary for the same result&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon;<&sol;strong> Anyone who watches PBS know is it slightly to the left of Karl Marx&period; With this kind of bias&comma; the Federal government should not be paying for what is essentially a commercial for the Democratic Party&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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