Trump Successfully Murders U.S. Public Media
from the this-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things dept
Donald Trump and his authoritarian friends have successfully destroyed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the closest this country has gotten to having a useful and effective publicly-funded media. The CPB this week voted to officially shut down, just months after Republicans passed a massive billionaire tax cut plan that stripped the organization of more than $1 billion in funding.
“For more than half a century, CPB existed to ensure that all Americans—regardless of geography, income, or background—had access to trusted news, educational programming, and local storytelling,” said Patricia Harrison, CPB’s president and CEO.”
As we’ve noted previously, right wingers and authoritarians loathe public broadcasting because, in its ideal form, it untethers journalism from the perverse financial incentives inherent in our consolidated, billionaire-owned, ad-engagement based, corporate media. A media that is easily bullied, cowed, and manipulated by bad actors looking to normalize, downplay, or validate no limit of terrible bullshit (see: CBS, Washington Post, the New York Times, and countless others).
The destruction of the CPB is particularly harmful for local U.S. broadcasting stations. While NPR doesn’t really take all that much money from the public anymore (roughly 1% of NPR’s annual budget comes from the government), the CPB distributed over 70 percent of its funding to about 1,500 public radio and TV stations, which now face existential collapse.
The attacks on the CPB are part of a broader information warfare campaign by the U.S. right wing, which has involved destroying all remaining media consolidation limits, letting radical right wing billionaires buy up major news networks and social media platforms, and launching fake investigations into public broadcasting. They’re afraid of the truth and a functional press, and it’s not subtle.
While Republicans are outwardly hostile to informed consensus, Democrats historically have done a shit job defending journalism or implementing media reform. The press also generally doesn’t like covering this destruction too deeply because consolidated corporate media billionaire ownership doesn’t much like the idea of having to compete with government subsidized alternatives to their bland infotainment dreck.
And even though U.S. public media never truly reached the potential we’ve seen in other countries (usually due to decades of right wing defunding and attacks), this is a generational, devastating loss all the same. Especially in terms of what could have been.
Filed Under: authoritarians, education, journalism, local broadcasters, media, public media
Companies: cpb, npr, pbs
Comments on “Trump Successfully Murders U.S. Public Media”
And that’s exactly the problem as far as these Nazi fucks are concerned.
Good. The more children in america that grow up stupid and die the better.
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The problem is that they’re going to grow up stupid and following orders from fascists which is going to lead to the deaths of millions of other people outside the country, so it’s not like it only affects Americans. The world isn’t made up of enclosed silos.
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The bitter, blood-soaked irony of hyperindividualist ideology is that, if given power, it will kill everyone instead of just the idiots who believe in it.
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And hyper individualism is based on the false sense of luxury of to each their own ignorance as a privilege.
What is with the toxic social privilege of people knowingly making worse choices, whether it is knowingly insecure flip phones to avoiding vaccines?
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Consider a sociopolitical theory that’s been making the rounds online as of late: “Everyone is 12 Theory”, which posits that…well, everyone—or at least everyone who supports or is in the Trump administration, anyway—has the maturity of a 12-year-old. “I don’t wanna eat vegetables! I don’t wanna get my shots! I want a robot that can do all my homework!” It’s all the kind of bullshit you’d expect from a 12-year-old, but from adults whose emotional and intellectual growth was stunted in their youth by right-wing ideologies (including religion) and who see the government/experts/“intellectuals” as parental figures against whom they should rebel (and the marginalized as potential victims for “deserved” bullying). If “the cruelty is the point” was the this-explains-everything phrase for Trump’s first term, “everyone is 12” seems to fit in that role for his second term.
“Democrats historically have done a shit job defending journalism or implementing media reform.”
I mean, at least they’re trying to defend. Other then that, this is the reason progressive democrats are getting popular.
Mr Rogers must be turning in his grave 😿
The worse part of this is that reviving such a project requires so much courage nowadays that it won’t be seeing the light of it during at least the next 58 years.
Here is a sample of BS paid via CPB:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMsJGnn-h_4&list=PLtaw783sD-HWC4Exfds4_lX9428LSz5eI&index=15&pp=iAQB
Nothing Trump destroys will be rebuilt in our lifetimes, the spineless democrats won’t do what’s needed to build anything that can’t just be demolished four years down the road or ruled illegal by the most openly corrupt justices in generations. Unless there is root ans branch ferofm, they’re going to whittle the US down to a bloody nub, supported entirely by a handful of blue states, Texas and extorting south america.
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But it’s a sure bet some Democrats are going to get elected running on promises of fixing the issues and rebuilding the lost aspects. Anyone who makes gestures in that direction will be praised. Anyone who gets a small pittance back will be canonized as a saint. And there will be campaigns run on hope and elections won on optimism and subsequent midterms lost on disappointment, fatigue, and disillusionment due to lack of progress.
For all the BS
Why arnt the agencies STILL WORKING, Not Working on the jobs they were created for?
OR reporting to TRUMP they need more people to DO THERE JOBS.
I cant believe that every congress person isnt getting Spam phone calls, ALL day long.
I AM. for the last month, avg 20 per day. Unless they Have someone else doing the cellphones, OR THEY BLOCKED all the spam. they should be Bombing them as bad as the rest of us.
But no, its not happening. Those numbers are RESTRICTED/Controlled. Yes we can set the phone to Do not disturb, and only get certain calls thru from our contacts, But do you have all your Doctors phone numbers? All your neighbors?
Finally got a program they lets me Select banned numbers, But they use random incoming numbers. Very few match up. And the program I found has over 22 million numbers to block Since December. Today on my phone from 1st call at 6:58am, till 11am is at 12 calls, most blocked.
And the Auto AI Hanna and I are going on a Date, very soon. She must like me Lots, as Iv had about 200+ calls from her. But she never gives me her number, it must be Long distance.
Lets play Ghost Busters, and WHO DO YOU CALL?
The old Hard wire phones had Star Codes to REPORT to the State AG.(which was hardly used unless there was a Court case coming up).
Why dont our phones has these Star codes??