[00:00:00] This is the FCB Podcast Network.
[00:00:33] Welcome back everybody to another episode of Just Listen to Yourself with Kira Davis.
[00:00:37] I am your host, Kira Davis, and this is a podcast where we take hot topics, hot button
[00:00:43] ideas, and we discuss the talking points on those ideas, and we draw those talking points
[00:00:48] all the way out to their logical conclusion.
[00:00:53] I am irritable today.
[00:00:56] I'm on day eight of a 30-day processed sugar fast, and my whole family decided to do this.
[00:01:04] Well, not my son.
[00:01:06] He's away at college, and he's very glad for that right now.
[00:01:08] But my whole family decided we've been kind of getting healthier, including my 16-year-old
[00:01:14] daughter, and we've been seeing great results from it.
[00:01:17] Our family, we're all losing weight.
[00:01:19] We're all feeling healthier.
[00:01:20] And my daughter's been very encouraged, so I kind of wanted to keep that encouragement
[00:01:25] going.
[00:01:26] And so I suggested, like a moron, a 30-day processed sugar fast for the whole family.
[00:01:33] I thought it was good timing motivation-wise, and my daughter agreed.
[00:01:39] My husband agreed.
[00:01:40] So we're all doing it.
[00:01:42] And yesterday and the day before, just everybody was just irritated beyond measure.
[00:01:51] I spent a good portion of my day yesterday just caring for people.
[00:01:56] Everybody was just out of sorts.
[00:01:59] So forgive me if I sound a little more out of sorts than usual today.
[00:02:04] I'm struggling, y'all.
[00:02:06] I am struggling.
[00:02:07] All right, well, let's get going.
[00:02:09] Today is a topic I've been wanting to talk about for a while.
[00:02:12] It's always in the news off and on.
[00:02:14] When I chose this topic, it was in the news.
[00:02:16] It's not anymore, but I think it's always valuable.
[00:02:19] I want to talk about public broadcasting, and do we still need public broadcasting?
[00:02:28] Lately we've been getting into a bit of a battle in the culture wars over public broadcasting,
[00:02:35] particularly the liberal bent of public broadcasting and some of their own self-censorship.
[00:02:44] And people are asking, should taxpayers be paying for this kind of stuff?
[00:02:50] We've heard disturbing statements from leadership in public broadcasting in the past, particularly
[00:02:56] regarding the Black Lives Matter and pro-Hamas riots.
[00:03:05] And so there's just a lot of people asking, do we need to fund public broadcasting?
[00:03:12] Now, if you've listened to this show for even a moment, you're probably going to guess where
[00:03:17] I land on this.
[00:03:20] From the start, I haven't believed for a very long time that we should be funding it,
[00:03:24] but I still think this is a good exercise, a good thinking exercise for us to go through
[00:03:29] together.
[00:03:31] Let's try to justify this or maybe not justify it.
[00:03:34] Maybe we'll go through the arguments and some of you will decide, yeah, we do need public
[00:03:39] broadcasting.
[00:03:40] So let's get started.
[00:03:43] What is public broadcasting in the United States?
[00:03:47] Most countries have some form of public broadcasting.
[00:03:51] Our form of public broadcasting was established in 1967 when the government established the
[00:03:58] Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
[00:04:02] And this is a private entity that works with the government.
[00:04:08] CPB describes itself as a private corporation funded by the American people.
[00:04:12] I don't understand how that works.
[00:04:14] This is a taxpayer-funded organization.
[00:04:17] Anyways, this is what their about page says.
[00:04:20] CPB is a private nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act
[00:04:26] of 1967.
[00:04:28] CPB is the steward of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting and the
[00:04:32] largest single source of funding for public radio, television and related online and
[00:04:37] mobile services.
[00:04:39] CPB's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, high quality content and
[00:04:46] telecommunications services.
[00:04:48] It does so by distributing more than 70% of its funding to more than 1,500 locally owned
[00:04:54] public radio stations and television stations.
[00:04:57] This is really important for our conversation because I didn't realize that this is how
[00:05:02] this worked until I started looking into this for this show.
[00:05:06] And some of you may not know as well.
[00:05:09] We imagine, or at least I imagined, that public broadcasting was the CPB, right?
[00:05:15] And they just have this big pot of money and they just fund NPR and PBS and then all the
[00:05:22] other local stations do their own kind of fundraising and just pull down the content
[00:05:28] from NPR and PBS.
[00:05:30] But really what happens is NPR and PBS are national extensions of what is really meant
[00:05:38] to be a local market.
[00:05:40] CPB actually funds local markets so you know that when you listen to NPR in Chicago it's
[00:05:48] a little different than when you listen to it in LA.
[00:05:50] You have different local programs, you have different hosts and then you have those big
[00:05:54] shows like All Things Considered that are the national shows that get funneled in as
[00:05:59] well.
[00:06:00] So CPB funds public radio stations, public TV stations, public news organizations through
[00:06:12] the grant process.
[00:06:14] This is where, and you're going to really need to know that this is important, it's going
[00:06:18] to come up in our arguments as we talk through this.
[00:06:21] NPR and PBS are the two main organizations that we're talking about when we talk about
[00:06:29] public broadcasting.
[00:06:31] They suck up almost all of the $537 million we budget each year for public broadcasting.
[00:06:41] There's some little odds and ends and miscellaneous entities here and there but that's basically
[00:06:46] what it is.
[00:06:47] So public broadcasting began as a support for local news but when the CPB realized that
[00:06:57] there needed to be some kind of, how do I explain this, a foundation or some kind of
[00:07:03] central organization, something central that can provide the big stuff or provide some
[00:07:10] kind of cohesive thread, that's when NPR and PBS were established as national versions
[00:07:16] of these local programs.
[00:07:19] So CPB sends these local PBS and NPR affiliates their grant money.
[00:07:26] The local NPR and PBS affiliates then send the money back to national NPR and national
[00:07:33] PBS to buy their shows.
[00:07:36] So there is an element of capitalism here.
[00:07:40] It's not just that CPB is funding NPR and PBS and then they're just funneling the money
[00:07:45] out.
[00:07:46] It's weird, of course, can only be thought of by government, just circular thing where
[00:07:52] they give the money to local affiliates and the local affiliates give the money back to
[00:07:56] PBS and NPR.
[00:07:57] They license all their shows, they pay for their content, and they pay licensing fees
[00:08:02] and probably membership fees and stuff like that.
[00:08:06] So NPR actually does turn a profit.
[00:08:08] PBS actually does turn a profit.
[00:08:12] And just in case there's somebody out there who doesn't know how you can maintain a nonprofit
[00:08:20] status while earning profit, you just hide it in administrative costs.
[00:08:26] So that's why when you're giving a charity, you should really look at their budget breakdown.
[00:08:31] A lot of them will have a pie chart and it'll tell you how much of their budget goes to
[00:08:36] administrative costs.
[00:08:39] Administrative costs should never be more than a quarter of the budget.
[00:08:42] And even a quarter is huge.
[00:08:45] Charity organizations that operate well and honestly typically keep their administrative
[00:08:51] costs around 5 to 10 percent.
[00:08:55] So 25 percent for a national organization, that's where you should be looking.
[00:09:01] Anything else, anything above that, you should feel suspicious of that.
[00:09:05] That's probably an organization that's hiding profits.
[00:09:09] And they just funnel those profits then to the people that work there in the form of
[00:09:13] salaries or bonuses or whatever goes on in these places.
[00:09:18] So that's how they work out this funding.
[00:09:21] I'll read a little bit more.
[00:09:22] They have a little breakdown of the numbers.
[00:09:25] CPB, by the numbers, they offer 391 radio grantees representing 1207 public radio stations,
[00:09:35] 158 television grantees representing 357 public TV stations, 251 of the total 549 radio
[00:09:46] and TV grantees are considered rural, 99 percent of Americans have access to public media,
[00:09:52] more than 70 percent of CPB's federal funding goes directly to local public media stations,
[00:09:58] less than 5 percent of funding is spent on CPB operations.
[00:10:04] So I guess that's good, less than 5 percent.
[00:10:06] CPB strives to support diverse programs and services that inform, educate, enlighten,
[00:10:11] and enrich the public.
[00:10:14] CPB's core values of collaboration, innovation, engagement, and diversity help to inform our
[00:10:20] program investments systems-wide.
[00:10:23] You can go to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's page at cpb.org and you can look up, and they
[00:10:30] have everything, they have the grants that they hand out, they have the programs, they
[00:10:33] have the budget, you can look up everything there.
[00:10:35] So that's that.
[00:10:36] NPR gets about $316 million in funding from CPB each year and PBS about $36.1 million.
[00:10:46] So when we're talking about do we need public broadcasting, public news, I think we need
[00:10:53] to consider why it began.
[00:10:56] We do that a lot on this show, we just went through the Civil Rights Act and we really
[00:11:01] dug into the roots of that, tried not to judge it based on where we are today.
[00:11:06] So let's try to take our 2024 filters off and imagine the time, 1967, when all of this
[00:11:16] was established.
[00:11:19] Now for sure there's just people who established it because more government, better government,
[00:11:23] you know, there's people that just want to be making stuff.
[00:11:27] But at the time, television and radio were huge entertainment industries.
[00:11:33] The entire American public was captured by one or the other or both.
[00:11:38] And you can imagine it was at that time there were three TV stations and they were all commercial,
[00:11:45] NBC, ABC, and CBS, right?
[00:11:48] They were all commercial and they also owned a lot of the radio stations and so some people
[00:11:55] felt that these commercialized outlets had a monopoly on the market and that they couldn't
[00:12:04] offer proper and diverse enough news, especially locally, because they weren't in those markets.
[00:12:14] You know, these are national organizations and so they didn't have people on the ground
[00:12:18] in those markets, but also because they wanted the American public to be informed and have
[00:12:27] more information that wasn't dependent on advertisers.
[00:12:31] We sort of have the same problem now in media, right?
[00:12:34] Where a lot of us are so beholden to the advertisers, it changes the way we talk and think and express.
[00:12:42] Not much different back then.
[00:12:44] So there were a lot of people who felt like there needed to be some kind of unbiased media
[00:12:49] that was not affected by advertising dollars at all.
[00:12:53] Remember, you're talking about a time when most people got their information from radio and newspapers.
[00:13:01] So I suppose this was an attempt to keep the media industry honest.
[00:13:07] I feel weird saying that now looking ahead all these years later and seeing how dishonest
[00:13:13] media has become, including public media if you ask me.
[00:13:17] But I digress.
[00:13:19] So I wanted to find some people out there who were defending public radio and I found
[00:13:27] this one article which it's a Canadian article but I feel like Canada is close enough to us
[00:13:32] that we can use it.
[00:13:34] It's regarding CBC.
[00:13:35] Of course, Canada has a huge publicly funded media system.
[00:13:39] It's way bigger than ours.
[00:13:40] It's basically the media system.
[00:13:43] So it's a bit different but they've been having the same conversations we have about funding
[00:13:47] public media and this little article that was on CBC radio a few years ago gave me a
[00:13:54] little neat little bullet point list of what public media gives you.
[00:14:00] So here are some of the reasons why we should support public media according to this and
[00:14:06] let's keep our minds open.
[00:14:09] So here are some of the things they say public broadcasting provides.
[00:14:13] More hard news, more international news, more domestic politics.
[00:14:19] So I'll stop right there and I will say I think that is right.
[00:14:23] I do.
[00:14:24] I think when I want to know what's going on internationally, yeah I do tune into NPR.
[00:14:29] I do tune into PBS.
[00:14:30] I'm definitely getting more international news there than I am on mainstream news and
[00:14:38] I know that's a big complaint that a lot of people in other countries have about America
[00:14:42] that we don't know a lot about what's going on in the world but we are so capitalistic.
[00:14:46] We are so commercialized that we're getting our news from mainstream outlets that really
[00:14:52] depend on advertisers.
[00:14:54] So they need to be always running things that are keeping our attention and what happens
[00:15:00] in other countries isn't something that holds our attention very much.
[00:15:03] We're very inward looking if you will.
[00:15:06] I think that's putting it nicely as Americans.
[00:15:09] So I think it's fair to say that public broadcasting does provide more variety when it comes to
[00:15:14] hard news, international news and domestic politics.
[00:15:17] And I do get a lot of just unbiased good old fashioned reporting from NPR.
[00:15:25] I still love listening to NPR.
[00:15:28] And it's the same kind of stuff that you used to get at the New York Times.
[00:15:32] Interesting stories about interesting people and typically they are devoid of these types
[00:15:38] of stories anyway.
[00:15:39] These human interest stories are often devoid of politics.
[00:15:44] They're telling a story and I think NPR has sort of mastered that form.
[00:16:05] Alright, so moving on.
[00:16:36] You have more current affairs programming.
[00:16:38] I think that would pair with more hard news, international news.
[00:16:42] You have more coverage of public policy issues.
[00:16:45] Okay, so C-SPAN, right?
[00:16:48] Stuff like that.
[00:16:50] Absolutely true.
[00:16:51] I'm not going to tune in to Fox News and watch Rand Paul filibustering for 26 hours straight.
[00:17:00] I got to go to C-SPAN for that.
[00:17:01] And when I want to see that, I'm happy to see it.
[00:17:04] I like it and I'm glad it's there.
[00:17:08] You get more reporting that is less sensationalist and more balanced.
[00:17:12] I think less sensationalist, yes.
[00:17:15] More balanced, yes.
[00:17:17] And I'm only saying that because they at least try.
[00:17:22] I think NPR and PBS over the years have become awfully skewed in their politics just as the
[00:17:28] American population has.
[00:17:30] I still would, in comparison, I still would imagine I'm getting more balanced information
[00:17:37] from them than I am in other markets left or right.
[00:17:43] That's because they're at least still pretending to try.
[00:17:47] And you have more stories that focus on policy substance.
[00:17:49] I agree with all this.
[00:17:50] I think these are all great aspects of public broadcasting.
[00:17:56] So here we go on to some other points.
[00:17:59] People who are exposed to news on public television are likelier to vote.
[00:18:05] Okay, this is where we come into causation versus correlation.
[00:18:14] People who are exposed to news on public service television are likelier to vote, better informed
[00:18:21] than people exposed to news on private TV, likelier to have more realistic perceptions
[00:18:26] of their society's crime and immigration, less likely to express negative attitudes
[00:18:32] toward immigration and immigrants.
[00:18:36] This is Canadian so I guess maybe that's one thing.
[00:18:39] Canada has, is really, really in the throes of a deep immigration crisis, societally speaking.
[00:18:48] We Americans, because we don't know much about Canada, look up there and think it's ideal.
[00:18:52] But they have a lot of problems because they don't integrate and they don't assimilate.
[00:18:57] And the country is, I think the country is majority immigrant almost.
[00:19:03] So this is a big issue.
[00:19:06] All that being said, is this because of public television that these people are this way?
[00:19:12] Or is it because people like that turn to public television?
[00:19:17] Or maybe that's the same thing to you.
[00:19:18] I don't think it's quite the same thing.
[00:19:21] For instance, I am, I am likelier to vote and I'm better informed than a lot of people
[00:19:28] who just watch mainstream TV.
[00:19:31] And because of that, I choose to find multiple sources for my news and entertainment.
[00:19:39] So it's not that PBS is, oh, I'm going to go to PBS because they're keeping me informed.
[00:19:45] It's because I'm a curious person and I know that PBS is one option in multiple options
[00:19:51] is going to give me a different perspective, maybe a more balanced perspective on things
[00:19:55] like international news or public policy, stuff like that.
[00:19:58] Or I know I'm going to go to C-SPAN to see the mechanics of Congress because that's the
[00:20:04] type of person I am, not because PBS made me that way.
[00:20:08] You get what I'm saying here?
[00:20:11] Okay, here's the last part of this article that tickled me, or this bullet point list
[00:20:17] that tickled me.
[00:20:19] Countries with strong and well-funded public broadcasters have higher levels of social
[00:20:24] trust and social cohesion and people who are less likely to hold and express extremist
[00:20:31] political views.
[00:20:34] And that is the crux of this problem.
[00:20:39] Who gets to decide what the extremist political views are, right?
[00:20:43] Public broadcasting does.
[00:20:44] So when they say we don't engage in extremist political views, that's an opinion.
[00:20:51] That's a political view, right?
[00:20:54] Because you're already measuring what is extreme.
[00:20:58] And it's certainly subjective.
[00:21:00] If you are running a story on the struggles of a woman who wants to have surgery to impossibly
[00:21:12] become a man, and you're running that story as this beautiful human interest story and
[00:21:18] why people need to support this, I consider that an extremist view.
[00:21:25] You might not.
[00:21:26] The president at PBS might not, but I do.
[00:21:30] So already this is really subjective.
[00:21:32] This sounds very, it's a very Canadian thing to say as well.
[00:21:36] People are less likely with public broadcasting to hold these views.
[00:21:41] But then the other thing, there's higher levels of social trust and social cohesion.
[00:21:45] Okay.
[00:21:46] If you have a country that has a well-funded and strong public broadcasting system, you
[00:21:53] most likely have a country that is heavily socialist, if not completely socialist or communist,
[00:22:01] but at least socialist like Canada.
[00:22:04] So when they say something like, well, people who have strong public broadcasting have higher
[00:22:13] levels of social trust and social cohesion.
[00:22:15] Yeah, because you have more sheep in that country for lack of a better term.
[00:22:20] I don't mean to sound like an extreme right winger, but yes, because all of these, the
[00:22:29] socialized norms of socialism then spill out into everything that you have and everything
[00:22:35] that you're offered.
[00:22:36] And when you have, like let's take Canada for instance.
[00:22:42] Canadian entertainment is government entertainment.
[00:22:45] It is publicly funded entertainment.
[00:22:47] There are very few private broadcasting entities in Canada.
[00:22:51] The CBC is still the main broadcaster and they're almost completely funded by the federal
[00:22:56] government.
[00:22:57] And in rural areas, it still may be because you have to remember of how much of Canada
[00:23:02] is actually the Arctic.
[00:23:04] It still might be one of the few channels that a person can get, that a person can observe.
[00:23:12] So if your entire population is only getting one side of a story, of course your entire
[00:23:17] population almost is going to at least poll as agreeing with all of these socialist values.
[00:23:26] So yes, of course you have higher levels of quote social trust and social cohesion because
[00:23:33] you have more people who think the same because they have fewer sources.
[00:23:37] This goes back to the whole reason we are now struggling.
[00:23:41] The whole reason Elon bought Twitter, the whole reason we are struggling against the
[00:23:47] social media bosses out there, if you will, that this is the whole point.
[00:23:55] Because they are throwing such a fit.
[00:23:57] They got their foot in the door, all the social media companies, and now they want to close
[00:24:01] the door and that's just typical business.
[00:24:03] But they're throwing such a fit and that's why our government is throwing such a fit.
[00:24:08] Because the more choices people have, the more information people have.
[00:24:11] And the more information people have, the more independently they think.
[00:24:14] And the more independently they think, the less you can count on their vote.
[00:24:19] Pretty simple.
[00:24:21] I want to go down this little bullet point list I made of my own about why I don't think
[00:24:26] we should be funding public media anymore.
[00:24:29] And the first is the budget.
[00:24:31] Public media is funded to the tune of half a billion dollars from the government right
[00:24:36] now, which seems like a drop in the bucket considering how huge our national budget is.
[00:24:42] But regardless, and most of that money goes to NPR and PBS affiliates.
[00:24:48] Especially those two organizations.
[00:24:50] Because I just explained the funding model to you, which is totally whack.
[00:24:54] Which is it goes out to the local affiliates and then the local affiliates buy the product
[00:24:58] back from NPR and PBS.
[00:25:01] So that's a lot of money.
[00:25:04] So let's just keep that in mind.
[00:25:06] Because as I go down the other points of my list, I want you to think about how much money
[00:25:11] it costs you, the taxpayer, every year.
[00:25:14] My next objection is the idea of options.
[00:25:19] I explained the genesis of public media to you in the beginning of the show.
[00:25:24] And there is an argument to be made that the intentions for that were good and that it
[00:25:33] was necessary, or at least a good idea.
[00:25:37] I think there's an argument to be made for that.
[00:25:39] I don't buy the argument because I think government should take its hands out of everything.
[00:25:45] But fair enough, there is or was at that time an argument to be made.
[00:25:51] And let's not forget they were in an era of technology that can be compared to ours, not
[00:25:59] in the level of technology, but in how it was disrupting the system and disrupting the
[00:26:05] American consumer.
[00:26:06] So they were also struggling with all of the same things that we are now, just in a different
[00:26:12] format.
[00:26:13] How do we regulate the digital realm without violating rights?
[00:26:18] How far is too far?
[00:26:20] What can be online?
[00:26:21] What's copyrighted?
[00:26:23] All of that.
[00:26:24] They were dealing with that same thing.
[00:26:26] Misinformation, disinformation, all of that.
[00:26:29] So I can at least understand the argument that, hey, we need this.
[00:26:35] But this is the problem with establishing a government program.
[00:26:38] Once you have it, it never goes away even if the need goes away.
[00:26:45] Why don't food stamps help people?
[00:26:48] If food stamps help, if welfare helps, why doesn't it ever go away?
[00:26:53] Why doesn't it ever get cut?
[00:26:55] Are you helping people or not?
[00:26:57] It doesn't go away.
[00:26:59] It doesn't get cut because actually welfare does help people a lot of the time.
[00:27:04] So when those people don't need it anymore, the system needs to support itself so it
[00:27:09] goes to find another host, if you will.
[00:27:11] The virus needs another host.
[00:27:14] Here in California on any given day of the month, you can find an advertisement either
[00:27:20] texted to you or on your advertisement online or even on TV, an advertisement from the state
[00:27:27] government begging people to sign up for food stamps.
[00:27:31] Begging people.
[00:27:33] They have extra food stamps, they have extra money.
[00:27:36] And if they don't get rid of it, they can't raise the budget for the next year.
[00:27:41] That's why we need to get back to baseline budgeting.
[00:27:44] Look that up if you don't know what it is.
[00:27:46] So it never goes away.
[00:27:50] The system has to keep supporting itself.
[00:27:53] I think there is an argument to be made that we don't need whatever we did need it for,
[00:27:59] we don't need it for that anymore.
[00:28:01] We have so many other options.
[00:28:03] Let's take the localized media argument for instance, the idea that well these local,
[00:28:09] smaller rural communities, CPB seems to be very proud of the work they do in rural media.
[00:28:16] So these very small rural communities, they want their local information, their local
[00:28:22] weather, their local this, that and the other that's going on as well as being informed
[00:28:26] nationally.
[00:28:27] And they don't want to have to depend on a national radio or TV station to give them
[00:28:32] two minutes of local news a day.
[00:28:35] So these people need this to stay informed.
[00:28:37] But now everybody can be informed.
[00:28:40] Everything is at your fingertips.
[00:28:42] Even the poorest among us have cell phones.
[00:28:45] Even homeless people have cell phones, thanks to Obama.
[00:28:50] So everybody has cell phone access in this country.
[00:28:53] If you want a cell phone and you want access to the internet through your cell phone, there's
[00:28:58] a government program for that.
[00:28:59] Absolutely, local or federal.
[00:29:03] There's a mere, I don't have to explain it to you, you're listening to this show on social
[00:29:07] media right now.
[00:29:09] There's a myriad of options to get your news from.
[00:29:11] You can get it from TikTok clips.
[00:29:13] You can get it from online articles.
[00:29:15] You can get a hard copy of a newspaper delivered to your house every day.
[00:29:19] You can watch cable news.
[00:29:21] You can watch local news.
[00:29:23] You can tune in to the radio.
[00:29:26] There are so many ways to get your news delivered.
[00:29:29] We are no longer dependent on one or two outlets or three.
[00:29:33] We're no longer dependent on this tiny base of media.
[00:29:39] Again, this has been the cause of great consternation for the mainstream media who, like most capitalists,
[00:29:47] got in the door and closed it behind them.
[00:29:48] They don't like to see the media space expanding.
[00:29:51] We've talked at length on this show about the good and the bad of that.
[00:29:56] There's both.
[00:29:57] I just don't see the ... I could be wrong.
[00:30:01] If you think I'm wrong on this, I would love to hear that opinion.
[00:30:04] JLTY at Protonmail.com because I just don't see the justification for it anymore.
[00:30:13] It was arguable in 1967.
[00:30:16] I don't think it's arguable now.
[00:30:50] Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:30:54] That's Alli, A-L-I-I.
[00:30:57] Come check out my show.
[00:30:58] I'll see you there.
[00:31:00] All right, another issue I have is with bias, of course.
[00:31:05] Again, we have talked at length on this show about media bias.
[00:31:09] I have several episodes on it.
[00:31:11] Go through the catalog.
[00:31:12] Look them up and take a listen if you want to know more about that.
[00:31:16] One of the things I say often is that there is no such thing as unbiased media.
[00:31:22] I'm not alone in that.
[00:31:23] It's not an original thought.
[00:31:25] I think there are very few people who actually consider what media bias is.
[00:31:34] They hear media bias and they think Fox News, or if they're conservative, they think CNN.
[00:31:44] But media bias is way more insidious than that.
[00:31:47] It's always been there since the time when we only had newspapers,
[00:31:52] from when the first printing press was invented.
[00:31:57] It's a very simple concept because human beings have bias.
[00:32:01] If you're in a local newsroom and you're setting the story schedule for the day,
[00:32:06] I want someone to cover this story, we need to cover that.
[00:32:10] Are you trying to tell me that there are only 10 news stories happening
[00:32:15] in any given location in a day?
[00:32:18] Do you mean to tell me that there's only 10 national stories worth telling a day?
[00:32:24] No, of course not.
[00:32:25] This is a country of over 350 million people.
[00:32:28] Something's going on somewhere every single day.
[00:32:31] Someone's had to curate what is important for you to see.
[00:32:35] That's bias.
[00:32:36] And if that person, maybe that person was attacked.
[00:32:41] Maybe they were mugged recently and now mugging is on their mind.
[00:32:45] And so, totally unconsciously, they might choose a day's worth of stories
[00:32:52] that are all about robberies and thefts.
[00:32:54] It can happen that way, but of course it always happens politically as well.
[00:32:59] And we do this in the right-wing media.
[00:33:02] There's no difference there.
[00:33:05] People don't want to report on things that make the people they like
[00:33:08] and support look bad.
[00:33:10] This is the problem that the mainstream media has with Biden
[00:33:13] and of course any Democrat administration.
[00:33:15] That's media bias.
[00:33:17] Someone's curating your news, someone's curating what you see.
[00:33:20] And PBS and NPR are no different, but because they're public broadcasters,
[00:33:24] these are people who are working in government.
[00:33:26] And right now, most of the people who work in the government
[00:33:29] have a left-wing bias.
[00:33:31] And that's what's going to seep into PBS and NPR
[00:33:34] and all other public entities, and we've seen that.
[00:33:37] We've seen it pop up in the children's show Sesame Street
[00:33:40] and what was that horrible little child, Caillou.
[00:33:45] Oh my gosh.
[00:33:47] I think Caillou is demonic, to be honest.
[00:33:53] There's something so off about that show and that kid.
[00:33:57] It's Canadian, which tells you something.
[00:34:00] Sorry, Canada.
[00:34:01] I know I'm so cruel, but I feel like I've earned it.
[00:34:04] I've earned the right.
[00:34:06] And so as you all know, I don't care about bias.
[00:34:10] I think bias is fine.
[00:34:12] I think the key to getting good media and good information
[00:34:15] is understanding bias and deliberately seeking out
[00:34:20] opposing opinions or at least just admitting
[00:34:24] that the news you're getting has a slant.
[00:34:26] That's helpful too.
[00:34:28] So I don't really care about the media bias.
[00:34:30] I don't want to fund it.
[00:34:32] I don't think my taxpayer dollars should be going to fund it.
[00:34:35] In fact, when you read through the CPB's mission statement
[00:34:40] and I read that article from CBC just now
[00:34:43] and other articles that I was looking at,
[00:34:45] everyone talks about how influential public broadcasting is.
[00:34:50] It's so influential.
[00:34:51] Look at that Canadian article.
[00:34:52] Oh, people who watch public broadcasting
[00:34:54] are more informed and more likely to vote
[00:34:56] and it creates better social cohesion.
[00:34:59] If they themselves are admitting
[00:35:01] that public broadcasting is hugely influential,
[00:35:05] oh, then I don't want to fund that.
[00:35:07] I really do not want to fund it.
[00:35:10] It's fine if it exists and I still might patronize it.
[00:35:15] But I don't think my taxpayer dollars should fund it.
[00:35:19] I'm actually okay with the idea of them
[00:35:23] maintaining some kind of nonprofit status.
[00:35:27] No, actually no, I'm not.
[00:35:30] You guys heard me change my mind in real time.
[00:35:33] No, I'm not fine with some nonprofit status
[00:35:37] that's equivalent to a taxpayer break.
[00:35:40] I just don't think we need these entities at all
[00:35:43] but I'll keep going through these arguments.
[00:35:46] And while we're on the topic of funding media bias,
[00:35:50] let's go back to their funding structure.
[00:35:53] Let's not forget NPR and PBS,
[00:35:55] it's not like they don't make money.
[00:35:57] They make tons of money.
[00:35:59] They make tons of profit.
[00:36:01] They sell their product to local affiliates.
[00:36:06] I mean, that sounds very capitalistic.
[00:36:08] It's not what I think most people understand it to be.
[00:36:12] If you're in Chicago and you're watching Sesame Street,
[00:36:15] it's because your Chicago affiliate bought it from PBS.
[00:36:18] I think it's on HBO now, but you get the drift.
[00:36:21] There's also individual giving
[00:36:24] which NPR claims is a huge portion of their budget
[00:36:29] which I never find to be a great argument.
[00:36:32] Planned Parenthood does the same.
[00:36:34] We don't take public funding for the abortion part.
[00:36:39] That's only a small percentage.
[00:36:41] Then why do you need it at all?
[00:36:44] If it's just the small portion of your actual fundraising,
[00:36:49] then why do you need it at all?
[00:36:51] Just up your fundraising game.
[00:36:53] I don't buy that, but there's a huge,
[00:36:55] there's over $1.5 billion annually
[00:37:03] in combined giving to public broadcasting.
[00:37:06] That's just your donations.
[00:37:09] So you have capitalism and membership drives
[00:37:14] to fund these programs.
[00:37:16] Plus you have the federal grants.
[00:37:18] I don't think we need to be giving them this money.
[00:37:23] If they are producing a product that people want to buy,
[00:37:27] it should be able to stand on their own.
[00:37:30] Now that goes back to the whole thing of,
[00:37:32] yeah, well, here if people want to buy it,
[00:37:34] then that means there's going to be some catering
[00:37:39] there to the audience, to the advertisers, yada, yada, yada.
[00:37:43] Isn't that the whole problem they're trying to avoid?
[00:37:46] Two things on that imaginary arguer.
[00:37:49] I would like to reiterate my point
[00:37:52] that people already have tons of sources
[00:37:56] for their information, tons of bias sources
[00:37:59] or tons of media sources they would also consider unbiased.
[00:38:03] There is no shortage of ways to get news
[00:38:07] and entertainment and information these days,
[00:38:10] no matter where you live.
[00:38:12] Even the people in the most remote areas
[00:38:15] of the United States have access to this type of technology.
[00:38:20] To PBS already, PBS NPR,
[00:38:24] but particularly PBS already does a version
[00:38:28] of bending to popular opinion or bending to the consumer.
[00:38:34] In the 80s and 90s, PBS saw a decline in viewership.
[00:38:40] We're going to talk about that as well.
[00:38:42] And they wanted to attract a new base, right?
[00:38:47] Who watches PBS in your house?
[00:38:49] If anyone watches PBS, who is it?
[00:38:51] It's a grandmother or your mother,
[00:38:53] or if you're Gen X, maybe you're watching
[00:38:56] some of those like Murdoch mysteries
[00:38:58] or something on there, maybe.
[00:39:00] But I mean, I don't even know
[00:39:02] if my kids would even recognize the term PBS if I said it.
[00:39:07] So they wanted to attract new viewers,
[00:39:10] which is something media companies do.
[00:39:13] And they changed their programming.
[00:39:15] They decided to stop playing
[00:39:18] so many of the British murder mysteries.
[00:39:20] My grandmother used to love those.
[00:39:22] And they started adopting more teen programming.
[00:39:26] They adopted some British programs
[00:39:28] and a couple of Canadian shows.
[00:39:30] And if you know anything about television
[00:39:33] in those countries, it's very risque
[00:39:38] according to American entertainment values, at least.
[00:39:41] When it comes to public broadcasting.
[00:39:43] And people complained.
[00:39:45] This is not what I watch PBS for.
[00:39:47] All of a sudden, I'm having to watch an episode
[00:39:49] about high school kids getting an abortion
[00:39:51] or STDs or coming out of the closet.
[00:39:55] This is not what I tune in for.
[00:39:57] I want to see someone get murdered
[00:39:59] and I want to see an old man solve it.
[00:40:01] And people complain and PBS had to pull back a little bit.
[00:40:04] So they already do it.
[00:40:06] It's either they're doing that with taxpayer money
[00:40:08] or they're doing it without taxpayer money.
[00:40:10] And I frankly think they should do it without taxpayer money.
[00:40:13] And then maybe they can
[00:40:15] have a better finger on the pulse
[00:40:18] of what their consumers really want.
[00:40:21] Because right now, they don't pay a price
[00:40:23] for their crappy programming.
[00:40:25] And there are a few things that I will go
[00:40:27] to public broadcasting for.
[00:40:29] But not much.
[00:40:31] Not enough to make them a regular stop.
[00:40:34] But they don't have to pay a cost
[00:40:36] for not providing programming
[00:40:38] that is valuable to people.
[00:40:40] They can keep failing upward
[00:40:42] because they're funded no matter what.
[00:40:44] That's bad business model
[00:40:46] and that's how you get bad business.
[00:40:48] That's how you get poor service.
[00:40:50] That's why public school sucks.
[00:40:52] That's why the DMV is rotten.
[00:40:54] That's why when you have to go
[00:40:56] to the social security office,
[00:40:58] it takes you eight hours to do one thing.
[00:41:00] Because nobody can fail.
[00:41:02] They get their money no matter
[00:41:04] how they treat you or how well
[00:41:06] Same thing here.
[00:41:08] Let's look at the numbers.
[00:41:10] Would any company fund this?
[00:41:12] Would any private company fund this
[00:41:14] with these kind of numbers?
[00:41:16] The audience for PBS NewsHour
[00:41:18] declined. I'm reading from Pew Research now.
[00:41:20] The audience for PBS NewsHour
[00:41:22] declined slightly after an increase
[00:41:24] in 2020. In 2022,
[00:41:26] it attracted about
[00:41:28] how many viewers would you guess?
[00:41:30] PBS NewsHour.
[00:41:32] That's their main...
[00:41:34] Again, something we don't do anymore.
[00:41:36] Back in the day when you used to sit down
[00:41:38] at a certain time to watch the evening news
[00:41:40] at home, it was 5 o'clock
[00:41:42] for local news, 6 o'clock for national news
[00:41:44] when I was growing up.
[00:41:46] So PBS has the NewsHour.
[00:41:48] Now this is not how people get their news
[00:41:50] anymore and PBS still has
[00:41:52] a NewsHour.
[00:41:54] Did you guess how many
[00:41:56] viewers it had in 2022?
[00:41:58] 900,000.
[00:42:00] 900,000
[00:42:02] viewers
[00:42:04] on average.
[00:42:06] Fox News
[00:42:08] in any given hour,
[00:42:10] even still with the decline in TV
[00:42:12] viewership, they're still pulling
[00:42:14] down 9 to
[00:42:16] 12 million dollars
[00:42:18] I mean million viewers
[00:42:20] in any given hour.
[00:42:22] 900,000 viewers is
[00:42:24] almost no one
[00:42:26] statistically speaking.
[00:42:30] PBS gets 36.7
[00:42:32] million public dollars
[00:42:34] a year. Why do they need money?
[00:42:36] Now you might say, well see, they're losing viewership
[00:42:38] they need money to stay afloat.
[00:42:40] No, the viewership is a clue
[00:42:42] that people
[00:42:44] don't want this. People aren't watching
[00:42:46] it. It does not offer
[00:42:48] the value that CPB
[00:42:50] promises on its website.
[00:42:52] That
[00:42:54] article we read promised
[00:42:56] from the CBC, that promise
[00:42:58] that people are more informed
[00:43:00] more influential, it influences
[00:43:02] voters. Who is it influencing?
[00:43:04] Nobody's watching.
[00:43:06] So it's not even influencing people enough
[00:43:08] to keep watching it.
[00:43:14] Hey y'all, this is Allie Michelle.
[00:43:16] I'm a conservative social media influencer
[00:43:18] that has been censored by big tech.
[00:43:20] So, I broke away
[00:43:22] from the restrictions and started
[00:43:24] a podcast called Pillow Talk
[00:43:26] with Allie Michelle. My show is a space to
[00:43:28] have real conversations about the
[00:43:30] issues that impact our everyday lives
[00:43:32] without the fear of being canceled
[00:43:34] by the big tech tyrants.
[00:43:36] Subscribe to Pillow Talk with Allie Michelle
[00:43:38] an FCB podcast
[00:43:40] on Apple, Spotify
[00:43:42] iHeart or
[00:43:44] wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:43:46] That's Allie, A-L-I-I
[00:43:48] Come check out my show! I'll see you there.
[00:43:50] Over the years
[00:43:52] PBS and NPR have skewed further
[00:43:54] and further to the left. That is obvious
[00:43:56] to me. It might not be to the
[00:43:58] liberal patrons of those
[00:44:00] organizations, but it's true.
[00:44:02] And if it's obvious enough to most of us
[00:44:04] then it certainly has outlived its purpose.
[00:44:06] I think public broadcasting
[00:44:08] has simply outlived its purpose.
[00:44:10] And I know it's a pipe dream
[00:44:12] to imagine that we would cut this.
[00:44:14] But it's absolutely
[00:44:16] not needed. There's an argument to be made
[00:44:18] for cutting, against, cutting
[00:44:20] welfare programs. I still don't agree with it
[00:44:22] but there is an argument there
[00:44:24] where people will be hungry, people won't have
[00:44:26] this service or that service. Okay, but
[00:44:29] Public broadcasting provides no
[00:44:31] public service that people need.
[00:44:33] We don't need it. If it disappears
[00:44:35] tomorrow, people will still have
[00:44:37] news. They will still
[00:44:39] get information. They will still
[00:44:41] know about elections. They will
[00:44:43] still vote.
[00:44:45] It's a waste of time and resources.
[00:44:47] It's just another way for the government
[00:44:49] to funnel money
[00:44:51] into people that can
[00:44:53] do their bidding, I think. I went
[00:44:55] to the CPB's board of directors
[00:44:57] Let me see who these people are. Who's
[00:44:59] running public broadcasting
[00:45:01] in the United States? And I think
[00:45:03] it matters. You should know who's
[00:45:05] on the board of directors.
[00:45:09] How can a board of directors be appointed
[00:45:11] by a single president
[00:45:13] and not have some kind of bias
[00:45:15] in how they're directing
[00:45:17] the agency?
[00:45:19] I went to the organization
[00:45:21] and already, off the top
[00:45:23] big problem for me
[00:45:25] seven members, five are women.
[00:45:27] Why are women leading
[00:45:29] all of the... I'm so sick
[00:45:31] of this, say this as a woman
[00:45:33] I am so sick of this
[00:45:35] hashtag
[00:45:37] women should rule the world attitude.
[00:45:41] And this whole thing of, you know, we're funding
[00:45:43] we want to get more girls into politics
[00:45:45] we want to get more women into politics
[00:45:47] We have enough women in politics.
[00:45:49] They run every organization
[00:45:51] Women run our school boards
[00:45:53] They run... they're the presidents
[00:45:55] of these government councils
[00:45:57] There's so many women
[00:45:59] leading organizations
[00:46:01] They're presidents of universities
[00:46:03] I'm more likely to see
[00:46:05] a female president of a university than a male
[00:46:07] president these days. That's on my mind
[00:46:09] because of how many
[00:46:11] leaders we're seeing having to speak out
[00:46:13] during these protests. This board
[00:46:15] is almost all women
[00:46:17] Already that's a problem because women
[00:46:19] skew towards compassion and nurturing
[00:46:21] That's not a problem when you're raising
[00:46:23] children. That's not a problem when you're
[00:46:25] serving your community
[00:46:27] It is a problem when you're trying
[00:46:29] to lead a business
[00:46:31] It's a problem when you're trying
[00:46:33] to lead period. A good
[00:46:35] leader cannot be overtaken by
[00:46:37] nurturing and compassion
[00:46:39] You have to make too many hard decisions
[00:46:41] so already I'm put off by how many women
[00:46:43] are on this board
[00:46:46] Not that I need
[00:46:48] none, but the fact
[00:46:50] that they're a majority
[00:46:53] All but one were appointed
[00:46:55] by President Biden
[00:46:57] One
[00:46:59] woman, Marian Helrich
[00:47:01] was appointed in 2019
[00:47:03] Her term's up this year
[00:47:05] and that's it
[00:47:07] All the rest are Biden appointees
[00:47:09] So there you have it
[00:47:11] It's not a job people apply
[00:47:13] for. It's not a job
[00:47:15] that you get based on any merit
[00:47:17] It's a job that the president
[00:47:19] appoints you to
[00:47:21] Therefore you have loyalty
[00:47:23] For media
[00:47:25] Now you're telling me
[00:47:27] we need public media because we need
[00:47:29] unbiased media and yet the president
[00:47:31] appoints
[00:47:33] the people that run
[00:47:35] that media. How is that not biased?
[00:47:37] The whole thing is
[00:47:39] rotten. The whole thing is corrupt from top to bottom
[00:47:41] If you're a liberal listening to this
[00:47:43] you're thinking, well what's the big deal
[00:47:45] Joe Biden's a good guy. He's just gonna appoint
[00:47:47] people who know how to do the job
[00:47:49] Okay, well just imagine then Donald Trump
[00:47:51] comes into office
[00:47:53] in November and sweeps all those people out
[00:47:55] and public media's being run by
[00:47:57] right-wingers
[00:47:59] The situation changes for you
[00:48:01] doesn't it? And it should
[00:48:03] So there is a problem here
[00:48:06] from top to bottom. It can't possibly
[00:48:08] be unbiased when the board of
[00:48:10] directors is appointed
[00:48:12] not merited
[00:48:14] So those are all
[00:48:16] my arguments for why I do not believe
[00:48:18] that we should be funding public media anymore
[00:48:20] It's a waste of taxpayer dollars
[00:48:22] and my gosh
[00:48:24] wouldn't it be nice for once
[00:48:26] for this government to just give us a damn break
[00:48:28] on something. This seems
[00:48:30] so easy. Yes, of course you'll have people
[00:48:32] complaining because people are gonna lose their jobs
[00:48:34] Right? The CPB, what will they do?
[00:48:36] Oh my gosh
[00:48:38] People will lose their jobs but local media
[00:48:40] won't go away
[00:48:42] They'll find other streams of funding
[00:48:44] They'll learn how to cater to an audience
[00:48:46] that will buy their product
[00:48:48] They'll become their own funders
[00:48:50] They can still apply for grants
[00:48:52] In the end
[00:48:54] here's the idea that I
[00:48:56] just am fiercely
[00:48:58] fiercely opposed to
[00:49:00] I find
[00:49:02] fiercely abhorrent
[00:49:04] There is this prevailing mentality
[00:49:06] particularly on the left
[00:49:08] that if government doesn't do it
[00:49:10] nobody will do it
[00:49:12] So if we take away PBS
[00:49:14] and NPR, then the whole system
[00:49:16] collapses. Nobody's
[00:49:18] going to fund your local radio
[00:49:20] Nobody's gonna fund local media
[00:49:22] and that is simply not true
[00:49:24] If that funding is
[00:49:26] not there, they will find it
[00:49:28] somewhere else. Someone will step
[00:49:30] up. Here's an example. I met a
[00:49:32] gentleman recently, a very
[00:49:34] wealthy man who lives and works in the
[00:49:36] Midwest. He owns
[00:49:38] a media conglomerate. He owns
[00:49:40] a media conglomerate of local
[00:49:43] newspapers. He's just a
[00:49:45] regular, degular, Midwest guy
[00:49:47] You wouldn't know
[00:49:49] that that's what he does
[00:49:51] But when I talked to him, he said
[00:49:53] you know, I had this business
[00:49:55] and it did well for me and I wanted to invest
[00:49:57] other places and I have a
[00:49:59] really, I have a big heart
[00:50:01] and mind for local media
[00:50:03] I think local media is the most influential
[00:50:05] media. I think local media
[00:50:07] is most important for the people
[00:50:09] in that community and the needs are different
[00:50:11] I think in order to support American
[00:50:13] liberty, local media
[00:50:15] is hugely essential and so
[00:50:17] he put his money where his mouth is
[00:50:19] and now he funds
[00:50:21] local media across
[00:50:23] the United States
[00:50:25] The people do it! People will
[00:50:27] do it. It will get done
[00:50:29] If it's needed
[00:50:31] The government doesn't have to do it. Government
[00:50:33] never should have done it but here's the other thing
[00:50:35] We should be deeply
[00:50:37] deeply suspicious of anything the government
[00:50:39] has their hands in. I was reading
[00:50:41] one article and they were saying
[00:50:43] well as arts programs
[00:50:45] for schools get
[00:50:47] the funding continues to be cut
[00:50:49] which that's a teacher union thing
[00:50:51] your teacher union is cutting the arts
[00:50:53] Now they're
[00:50:55] working on math. Soon there won't
[00:50:57] be anything left to teach your kids
[00:50:59] except that boys can be girls and girls can be boys
[00:51:01] The argument
[00:51:03] was that, oh, we're not
[00:51:05] funding arts programs anymore so PBS
[00:51:07] and NPR are hugely important
[00:51:09] for funding the arts. No, the government
[00:51:11] should not be funding the arts. I know a
[00:51:13] lot of artists out there, even on the right
[00:51:15] don't want to hear this. The government should not
[00:51:17] be funding the arts in any way
[00:51:19] Most
[00:51:21] left wingers only feel that way when it's
[00:51:23] left wingers in control
[00:51:25] But the government has no business
[00:51:27] in the arts because the government should
[00:51:29] not dictate to you what the arts looks like
[00:51:31] The arts is actually, I think
[00:51:33] the nature of real art
[00:51:35] is anti-establishment in some way
[00:51:37] or another. So the government
[00:51:39] can't support that. Furthermore, if the
[00:51:41] government can put pressure on artists
[00:51:43] to make certain kinds of art because they
[00:51:45] control the money, we're going
[00:51:47] right back to that bias thing
[00:51:49] So in fact, instead
[00:51:51] of freeing public media
[00:51:53] from bias, it actually enslaves public
[00:51:55] media to bias. So I don't
[00:51:57] see any good reasons for public
[00:51:59] broadcasting at this point
[00:52:01] and I think it should end. What do you think?
[00:52:03] Write to me, JLTY at ProtonMail.com
[00:52:05] JLTY at
[00:52:07] ProtonMail.com
[00:52:09] Don't forget to sign up for my sub stack
[00:52:11] JustKiraDavis.substack.com
[00:52:13] and don't forget to check
[00:52:15] out our other shows on the FCB
[00:52:17] Network, The Outlaws Radio
[00:52:19] with my producer Darvio
[00:52:21] Morrow and they do a lot of good work
[00:52:23] over there so patronize our other shows
[00:52:25] as well. We are biased
[00:52:27] media but we're going to be honest
[00:52:29] about our bias here and we could use
[00:52:31] your support in any way possible. Another
[00:52:33] thing you can do is hit that subscribe
[00:52:35] or like button on this podcast
[00:52:37] and leave me a rating and review. Five stars
[00:52:39] please. I will talk to
[00:52:41] you next time but until we meet again
[00:52:43] just remember
[00:52:45] every once in a while, stop
[00:52:47] and just listen to yourself
[00:53:01] I pray Lord
[00:53:03] that my soul to take
[00:53:05] that we won't lose faith
[00:53:07] all we got is us
[00:53:09] no one can take that away
[00:53:11] so don't lose faith it's gonna be ok