It’s Time to Defund PBS—and NPR, Too

PBS receives hundreds of millions of dollars in federal taxpayer funding, but its bias against conservatives threatens democracy by spreading fake news and pitting Americans against each other. 

President Donald Trump and Congress should fix this.

On Monday, PBS falsely reported: “Billionaire Elon Musk gave what appeared to be a fascist salute Monday while making a speech at the post-inauguration celebration for President Donald Trump at the Capital One Arena.” 

Claims like this help explain why Trump won and why trust in the media has cratered in recent decades. This sort of ridiculous commentary is opinion and not news. Americans deserve better than these types of falsehoods. 

In his speech, Musk told the audience: “My heart goes out to you.” He gestured in kindness and vulnerability, not control. The criticism that he received not only from PBS, but numerous other legacy media outlets is why men are reluctant to show emotion in society. 

The Anti-Defamation League, a prominent activist group that combats antisemitism, said the gesture was not a Nazi salute. 

This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day, and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety. It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge.

In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead.

PBS also ignored a series of Democratic politicians making similar gestures, including repeated similar gestures by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)

Musk shook off the criticism. “The legacy media is pure propaganda. You are the media now,” he said, referring to the voters and X users.

Thankfully, PBS caught the attention of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who said: “As the chairwoman of the Oversight Subcommittee on [the Department of Government Efficiency], I look forward to PBS coming before my committee and explaining why lying and spreading propaganda to serve the Democrat Party and attack Republicans is a good use of taxpayer funds. We will be in touch soon.”

OpenSecrets reports that 100% of political donations from PBS employees went to Democrats during the 2024 political cycle. Since 1996, going back nearly 30 years and more than $85,000 in donations, according to OpenSecrets data, there has only been one cycle (2004) in which Republicans received more in campaign contributions than Democrats from PBS employees. 

Among NPR employees, the imbalance is even worse. OpenSecrets’ NPR data of nearly $60,000 in donations goes back 33 years to 1992. There has never been an election in that period in which NPR employees donated more to Republicans than Democrats. In fact, in those 16 political cycles, Republicans only received any funding at all in just two cycles, and that includes a paltry $1—yes, just one buck—last year to then-GOP presidential candidate Doug Burgum.

These trends help explain why Tuesday morning, NPR’s 9 a.m. newscast asserted that Trump’s claim that China controls the Panama Canal was “without evidence.” That’s despite the fact that China controls a Hong Kong company operating major ports at both ends of the Panama Canal. 

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting—PBS’ and NPR’s parent—received $525 million in taxpayer funding for fiscal year 2024. Of that, public television stations received $367 million, and public radio stations received $126 million. 

Eric Rozenman of Fairfax City, with the Jewish Policy Center, and a member of Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Commission to Combat Antisemitism, noted in a Washington Post letter to the editor that “NPR’s and PBS’s assertions that direct federal funding totals a tiny portion of their budgets amounts to rhetorical money laundering. Through program charges and other fees paid by stations, their total take from Uncle Sam is well into double digits [percentage-wise], in NPR’s case an estimated 17% or more of the network’s budget. NPR and PBS might not be directly government-controlled like Russia’s RT, but they most definitely are government-funded.”

Besides the cultural and political rot at PBS and NPR, it will be exciting to witness the major reforms that Kari Lake will bring to Voice of America, which has become a leftist propaganda outlet. Taxpayers spent $267.5 million in fiscal year 2023 on Voice of America, and its parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, requested $950 million for fiscal year 2025, a 7.4% increase from fiscal 2023. 

Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute correctly noted that “[t]he U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees U.S. government programming, ignores the waste, fraud, and abuse in which VOA’s leadership increasingly engages. So, too, has Congress.”

With new sheriffs in town in the White House and Congress, taxpayers finally have advocates who will restore fiscal discipline and remove leftist, anti-American media propaganda paid for by We the People.

Carrie Sheffield is a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Voice.

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