Gov. Ron DeSantis continues looking out for Florida taxpayers. The latest example is his veto of money for public broadcasting stations throughout the state.
The Jacksonville station, WJCT, will not get $172,134 to replace a damaged studio floor and $631,160 for restroom renovation.
In all, some $6.4 million was saved by cutting funds the Florida Legislature had set aside for the stations.
DeSantis has surpassed both Jeb Bush and Rick Scott at wielding the veto pen.
There is no reason for government support of public broadcasting. It is broadcasting for liberals and liberal donations should pay the cost.
When public broadcasting began in the 1950s as “educational TV,” there was some justification. Only three networks existed then.
Now there is a plethora of media. Public broadcasting has for years been pro-government, anti-free enterprise, making it effectively a state-operated propaganda machine like Pravda in the old Soviet Union. It provides no programming of worth that could not be found on other platforms.
The PBS network, for example, has been in the forefront of the Anti-Trump movement. During its online YouTube stream of former President Donald Trump’s speech Tuesday about his arraignment, PBS NewsHour displayed a graphic that was meant to provide “context,” which said that “Experts warn that inflammatory rhetoric from elected officials or people in power can prompt individual actors to commit acts of violence.”
Another warning later said, “Violent rhetoric has escalated in online forums and far-right militia groups since Trump’s federal indictment.”
PBS said nothing about its own complicity in stoking the violence during the summer of 2020.
With most of the media already acting as the mouthpiece of the Democrat Party, there is no need for government to subsidize yet another mouth.
Cut public broadcasting loose and let it sink or swim, like any other business.
