Tag: NPR

Well, Maybe It Wasn’t Such a Small Part of the Funding

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Despite assurances that federal funds were a miniscule part of the budget for PBS and NPR, those media groups have already begun to feel the effects of the rescission:

PBS To Cut Budget By 21% Following Public Media’s Loss of Federal Funding

“PBS plans to cut its budget by 21% as public media faces the loss of $1.1 billion in federal funding over the next two fiscal years.

Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, informed station general managers Wednesday of the planned cuts. The overall pool of station dues will be reduced by $35 million, she said. Local outlets are grappling with their own budget holes given the loss of federal support.”

Very sad.

David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart are two “journalists” that appear on Fridays on the PBS NewsHour and I think that part of that $35 million could be offset by firing one of them.  Now how to do that is a question.  What occurs to me is a scene from the classic tv series Star Trek:

David and Jonathan could be dressed as Thralls and forced to battle in the arena while PBS viewers place wagers in quatloos that will pay the salary of whichever of them walks out of the arena alive.

Also, I read that NPR is forced to reduce its budget by $8 million for next year.  Also, very sad.

The article stressed that replacement funds from private corporations have not been forthcoming because the other Congressional budget cuts have impacted how corporations are allocating their charitable donations.  Apparently, everyone is scrambling after alternative funding sources and there just isn’t enough money to go around.  Also very, very sad.

So, what’s the takeaway here?  Well, I think it’s important to remember that when the Left tells you that government funding for something they like is miniscule and unimportant, that means it’s a lot of money and it’s critical to their operation.  And I think it goes without saying that the money is being used to make very comfortable existences for the people at the top.  There are homes in Northern Virginia and Ivy League tuitions and expensive wines at lunch that are being funded with that money.  Now that doesn’t mean that those things will go away because of these cuts.  No, that’s not how it works.  It probably means several lower echelon people will lose their jobs and several shows won’t get made.  Maybe the next Ken Burns series will be cut or Masterpiece will have to use American actors instead of British.  Or as I said Books and Capon; I mean Brooks and Capehart will have to get whittled down to Brooks or Capehart.

Now you might wonder if the heads of PBS and NPR might have an epiphany and try to sell Congress on the idea that they could truly produce non-partisan and unbiased content that appeals to both the Left and Right.  They could bring aboard conservatives on their boards and in management and put together a lineup of shows that even Donald Trump, Speaker Johnson and Senator Mike Lee would be willing to fund.  Now that would be something.  Of course, the chances of that happening are of the same order of magnitude as Nancy Pelosi going to heaven.

So, congratulations again to Donald Trump and his friends in Congress.  Their unprecedented action to defund PBS and NPR is already bearing fruit in ways we cannot yet appreciate.  Some show advocating for pediatric trans-surgery is probably not going to be funded because no corporate sponsor will want to touch it.  Very, very, very sad.

Bravo.

Capon Parts Ways with Red Lobster

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Girl Boss Anchor – And as we finish this broadcast I have heard that Jonathan Capon will be leaving Red Lobster.  Jonathan, would you like to address this development with our audience?

Jonathan Capon – Sure why not?  Well, first of all David Books brought me aboard under false pretenses.  He told them I was an illegal alien and would work for first pick of the kitchen scraps like some kind of rodent.

Second of all, the head waiter told me to “butch it up.”  And strike three, someone put up a poster of Sydney Sweeney in the locker room.  In this kind of hostile work environment I just couldn’t be my authentic self.  For all these reasons I’m going back to my refrigerator box and my crew under the overpass.  Let Books enjoy his corporate fat cat existence here at the Red Lobster but I have to be real.  I have to testify to my own lived truth.

Girl Boss Anchor – That’s interesting.  David told me you were fired because you fell asleep in the Shrimp Freezer Room and had to be chiseled off of a shelf.

Jonathan Capon – There might have been something like that but there’s more to the story that I won’t reveal until the case comes to trial.

Girl Boss Anchor – Thank you Jonathan for that interesting slice of life and we await your next assignment with great interest.

Jonathan Capon – Hey, any chance of an advance?  We need a new refrigerator box after the rains.

Girl Boss Anchor – Sorry, no.

CPB Shutting Down; Red Lobster Buried Under with Resumes

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Corporation for Public Broadcasting, funder of NPR and PBS, says it will end operations within months after federal budget cuts

Well, I’m guessing this doesn’t bode well for the rest of the folks downstream of CPB.  As I’ve hinted in my parody posts the folks at PBS and NPR will start feeling a little hungry very soon.  Lightening the ship by throwing the deadwood overboard will be tricky because they’re all deadwood.

But watching it happen should provide quite a bit of entertainment this fall.  Luckily Books and Capon were on the leading edge and managed to find positions before the crush got too heavy.  I’ll have to make a point of visiting my local Red Lobster and quiz my waiter on the latest in avant-garde lesbian performance art.

Trump, You Magnificent Bastard, You Did It!!!

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H.R.4 – Rescissions Act of 2025 signed into law July 24th 2025.

 

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4

It’s over, it’s over.  Books and Capon will have to panhandle outside the deserted Dept. of Education office building and turn tricks for the homeless.

What a wonderful time to be alive.  All of the dreams of my youth are coming true.  Who knows?  Maybe they’ll put Tricky Dick Nixon on the thousand dollar bill.

So remember kids, dreams really can come true.  All you need is an ornery enough bastard like Donald Trump and enough people who are sick and tired of being lied to and gaslighted by their elected officials.

Why the Delay?

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Congress passed the 2025 Rescission Bill last Friday.  And that was on the final day allowed under the special rules for a rescission bill.  What isn’t as well publicized is that President Trump has not yet signed the bill into law

The Apocalypse of Legacy Media

“All government funding for PBS and NPR, including their local affiliates, has been eliminated by recent Congressional votes. Trump has not yet signed the rescissions package into law, but it has been sent to his desk for signature after final passage by Congress. This will lead to a significant reduction in local programming; however, it is believed that national programming will survive due to other revenue streams.”

Now I find this very annoying.  I’ve been waiting on this sign-off for the better part of four days.  Maybe Trump plans a special signing ceremony and some kind of celebratory gesture; possibly slaughtering an ostrich made up to look like Big Bird and then roasting it on a spit over a coal fired stove.

Well, let’s hope this delay is over soon.

One Step Closer to Firing Books and Capon

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That bill that would defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by extension NPR and PBS has moved past a big hurdle on the Senate floor.  So the fear at the NY Times is palpable.

This Is Why America Needs Public Media

Good!

“Republicans complain, not always wrongly, that public media reflects left-leaning assumptions and biases. And they can fairly tell NPR and PBS to do a better job of reflecting the citizenry that is subsidizing them. Yet the “national” part of NPR (or National Public Radio, as it used to call itself) that chafes conservatives may well be just fine without federal funds. Only about 2 percent of its budget comes directly from the federal government, and it may have an easier time raising money from its many dedicated listeners if Congress punishes it.”

They can’t make up their minds.  Is the government funding insignificant or critical?  Well, let’s find out!

All Things Considered, Considered

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Donald Trump has changed America.  Mr. Trump didn’t shift the Overton Window.  He put a brick through it.  His take on what’s wrong with America isn’t shocking anymore because his view has become the mainstream opinion.

So, all of that is true.  But has he changed America?  Well, yes.  On this and that he’s made changes and they are changes for the better.  His immigration policy and the results he’s getting on deportation are important.  His birthright citizenship fight is historic and if it succeeds it will change the dynamics of immigration into this country.

But how will I gauge whether Donald Trump’s second term is a success or failure?  For me success is permanently defunding PBS and NPR.  That’s the whole thing in a nutshell.  That is the litmus test.  I want David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart laid off by PBS due to lack of funding.  I want to see them on YouTube or Patreon making silly noises whenever someone pledges ten dollars for a super chat or whatever it’s called.  I want Big Bird and Elmo forced to go back to being waiters in the NYC theater district and I want that woman who runs NPR and testified before Congress that there was no bias on her watch, fired and forced to start an Only Fans channel.  Let’s face it.  As long as all of us are still paying for these people to insult and slander us on the public airwaves, we are not winning anything.  We’re just losing less.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I don’t need NPR or PBS to cease to exist.  I absolutely want leftists to have their own echo chambers.  This is a free country (theoretically) and if they want to buy tote bags and overpriced wine from their favorite fake journalists at “All Things Considered” or the “PBS New Hour” then let them go ahead and knock themselves out.  By all means do so.  But let them pay for the damn thing themselves.  They’re always saying how public funding is only like 15% of their total funding.  If that’s the case then they won’t miss our money at all.

But everyone knows that’s not the case.  If they suddenly had to get along without the federal government they would be broke.  Brooks and Capehart wouldn’t be able to afford their bow ties and spats.  And there wouldn’t be any money to fund their hard-hitting exposes on the health benefits of attending drag queen story hour in the Tenderloin.

So that’s it.  Trump can announce that he’s winning so much that people are getting tired of winning but as long as NPR still has journalism hacks in hushed tones declaring the body count from the break up of USAID then I won’t declare him the winner.  He’s just losing slightly less hard.

But I haven’t given up hope.  There’s still a window of opportunity for the bill that defunds these stations to be passed in the Senate.  Sometime in August that bill will expire and our last best chance to kill Sesame Street and fake news will end.  So come on Donald from one kid from the Outer Boroughs to another put your shoulder behind this thing and make us both winners.

Trump Signs EO Ending Federal Funding for NPR & PBS

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Sure, I know there will be a court injunction within the hour but still the schadenfreude and just general hilarity from this move makes it all worthwhile.  I dream of all the muppets being laid off.  Elmo, Big Bird and the other weirdos who inhabit the creepy corners of Sesame Street.

Imagine all the NPR hosts of “All Things Considered” talking in the Robert Siegel whisper until they find out they’ve been laid off and then all shrieking and cussing at the tops of their lungs.  How glorious.

But my favorite subtractions will be Jonathan Capehart and David Brooks.  These two pretentious blowhards have been the greatest sources of government funded misinformation on display.  Not having to pay for their efforts will be an enormous relief.

But Gaza?

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So, I turn around for a minute and the next thing I know Trump is annexing the Gaza Strip.  What’s next?  Will he be fighting the Pygmies of Central Africa and laying claim to the long-lost ivory of the legendary elephant burial ground?  I’m starting to get dizzy.  Now I’m all for shutting down USAID and offering golden parachutes to the whole damn CIA.  I doubt anyone in that agency ever produced intelligence that was worth the paper it was written on.

But this Gaza thing sounds crazy.  What the hell do we want with Gaza?  First of all, it’s full of Gazans who are crazy even by Palestinian standards.  If this is some kind of a bluff, I’m damned if I can see how it helps anyone.  Sending our troops there is tantamount to opening up another forever war when we’re finally rid of the ones we were stuck with.

Well, for the time being I’ll make believe that this isn’t actually happening.  I’m not ready to abandon all hope for a better world and that’s what adopting Gaza would mean.  Stay tuned.

Getting back to happier thoughts, I hear Trump is going after PBS and NPR.  They’re being investigated because they allow sponsors to air little puff pieces that tout their sponsorship.  These acknowledgements are being scrutinized to see if they come too close to being commercials which are banned under the PBS charter.  Well, that seems like quibbling.  I wouldn’t cut off their funding over that.  I’d axe them for employing Jonathan Capehart and David Brooks.  Two more pathetic “journalists” have never assaulted the airwaves with tripe less worthy of being called opinion.  And after NPR drove out Uri Berliner for telling the truth about the left-wing echo chamber that exists at the organization, Trump should shut the place down once and for all because of discrimination against intelligence.  He would be doing a favor to all of humanity.  The smarmy, unctuous, hushed tones of the boobs employed there are an obvious symptom of a hothouse environment where products of Ivy League colleges exchange congratulations for “uncovering” examples of normal people ignoring whatever pathology NPR is trying to normalize and getting on with their lives without having to apologize for doing so.

As much as I applaud the acumen that has targeted USAID as among the first departments to be dissected by Trump’s cabinet, I really want to see funding ended for NPR and PBS.  They always claim that they only receive a pittance from the federal government.  Fine then, they won’t miss it when it’s gone.  Just cut it off.

And finally, I’m very excited to see what happens to the Department of Education.  I can think of a dozen changes that would reverse the influence of that agency from negative to positive.  The first thing would be cutting off all funding to any public school that in any way advocated for abnormal sexuality.  Banning the whole LGBTQ mess should be the first order of business.  Afte that the government should stop funding for colleges that use affirmative action instead of merit-based criteria for admissions.  And finally, the federal government should buy into school choice via vouchers for parents who want a legitimate choice to the public school system.

It looks like Gabbard, Kennedy and Patel will get through this week or next.  That should allow Trump to solidify the actions he’s already taking in those departments.  There really does seem to be action almost everywhere in the government.  I hear DOGE is doing an in-depth review of the Ukraine War funding to find out exactly how many billions of dollars were stolen.  That will be a sad but important report.  Alright, that’s enough for now.

But Gaza?