I love PBS. But I don’t think it or NPR should get taxpayer dollars | Opinion

Let me begin by saying that I mean Big Bird no harm. And that I love Ken Burns.

I donate to PBS stations. I’ve taken calls on their behalf as a phone bank volunteer during televised pledge drives. I’ve tuned into more PBS auctions than I can count.

I just don’t think they (and their radio sidekick, NPR) should be funded by taxpayer dollars.

There, I’ve said it.

According to PBS CEO Paula Kerger, appearing recently on the “PBS News Hour,” public funds account for 15% of PBS’ operating revenues. Put another way, that amounts to about $1.60 per American taxpayer.

Does subtracting it create a budget hole? Of course. Is rescinding monies already appropriated dodgy? Sure. But is it the end of the world? No.

Your PBS station really does get much of its funding from viewers like you. And from a wide swath of foundations and corporations. The same is true of NPR.

I’m not coming at this because I think PBS is overly biased. On the contrary, I think they work hard to play it straight down the middle. This belief goes back to my days as press secretary to the late Sen. Bob Dole, the conservative Republican from Kansas.

Bob Dole loved going on what was then “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report,” the forerunner of today’s “PBS News Hour.” Part of this was because Jim Lehrer was a fellow Kansan. (I’m not sure if the senator knew that Robin MacNeil was Canadian — but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have cared)

Dole felt that if he went on PBS, he’d get a fair, agenda-free hearing. And, by and large, he did.

Has the “News Hour” veered away from that neutrality? Through its selection of topics, guests and lines of questioning? That would take exhaustive empirical research. But my tummy tells me that they probably have, to a degree. But I still watch because it (and the BBC) to my mind come closest to providing that elusive thing called unbiased news.

Certainly, as compared to Fox News, MSNBC or CNN.

As for NPR, both my tummy and my brain say they lean leftward. I listen frequently to their affiliates, whether in Kansas, Missouri, or Massachusetts. I am reminded of listening to Radio Free Europe when I was ensconced in Warsaw as a news correspondent in the days of the Iron Curtain. Except NPR sounds like Radio Free America.

My friend and fellow Dole staffer, Kim Wells, sent me a 2024 article in which a NPR Business Editor, Uri Berliner, asserted that when he researched the party affiliation of his fellow Washington, D.C., NPR staffers, 87 out of 87 were registered as Democrats.

I’m no math whiz, but I think that comes to 100%.

Mr. Berliner for his troubles was suspended without pay, and soon afterwards resigned.

So much for diversity, equity and inclusion.

Proving the consistency of my inconsistency, I do on the other hand support taxpayer funding for Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. It is in America’s strategic interest that citizens of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarus and Xi Jinping’s China get to hear something beyond the pap fed to them by their oppressive regimes.

Last time I looked, and despite the recent deplorable CBS cave-in, we still have a free press in this country. And a First Amendment. And we still have PBS and NPR. We just don’t have taxpayers footing the bill. And that’s a good thing — for them and for us.

Bob Waite is looking forward to Ken Burns’ new documentary, “The American Revolution,” on PBS this fall. He is managing partner of communications firm Waite + Co. and former press secretary for Kansas Sen. Bob Dole. He can be reached at bob.waite@senecapolytechnic.ca

This story was originally published August 17, 2025 at 7:02 AM.