OPINION:
“Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?” The show’s theme song has been asking that for more than 50 years, and the fact that the answer will soon be “By turning to Netflix” significantly undercuts the left’s doom-and-gloom campaign over President Trump’s recent order to pull federal funding from PBS and NPR.
For years, conservatives have been noting the injustice of giving taxpayer money to both of them, only to be asked why they hate Big Bird and why they want kids to go without educational programming.
That argument was harder to refute years ago when most households had a TV with a rabbit-ear antenna and only three or four channels, but the media landscape has changed dramatically since then.
Educational material has proliferated at a remarkable rate. It’s as close as the nearest smartphone — and there’s over 300 million of those in the U.S. alone.
Today, no one can seriously claim that a child needs access to Ernie and Bert and all the other Sesame Street characters to learn how to spell, count, and read. The list of educational programs and computer apps available for kids in even the most remote parts of the country is a long one.
That’s not to say there isn’t room in this crowded field for a nostalgic favorite like “Sesame Street.” But it’s hard to justify taxpayer funding for it when there are numerous other ways to educate kids in an engaging way. And since PBS has been finding alternative ways to air “Sesame Street” for the last decade — first on HBO, and now on Netflix — can anyone credibly argue that it can’t exist without its annual infusion of federal funds?
But the real value in Mr. Trump’s order goes beyond stopping the waste of such funds. What really rankles the left is that this means no more taxpayer money for the slanted news programming NPR has been airing for decades.
They make it sound like our republic will fall without them. As NPR CEO Katherine Maher put it when testifying to Congress recently: “America’s founders knew that an informed public is essential to a functioning democracy, and that commitment to serve an informed public is the heart of NPR’s mission.”
Like most Americans, I have great respect for honest, objective, balanced journalism. But that’s not even close to what public broadcasting provides.
Conservatives have been saying that for many years, but an NPR insider helped confirm it. Uri Berliner, who worked as an editor there for 25 years, wrote a scathing piece in the Free Press last year about his long-time employer.
“It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed,” he wrote. “We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding. In recent years, however, that has changed. Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population.”
The shift from left-leaning journalism to outright advocacy at NPR, according to Mr. Berliner, occurred when President Trump was first elected. On story after story, from Russia-gate to Black Lives Matter riots to the origins of the COVID-19 virus, public broadcasting was no longer searching for the facts. It was running a propaganda factory.
Any American who wants to do that is free to do so. But to do while proclaiming your alleged objectivity and commitment to the truth — and demanding taxpayer funding? That takes some serious gall.
When Ms. Maher isn’t in front of Congress, she speaks more candidly. In a 2021 panel discussion held by the Atlantic Council, she referred to the First Amendment as the “No. 1 challenge” for journalists. Why? Because it makes it hard for them to combat what she called “bad information” — i.e., viewpoints with which she disagrees.
Indeed, like many on the left, Ms. Maher’s argument is with truth itself. As she said in an infamous Ted Talk: “In fact, our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.”
Getting news from someone who thinks truth is a problem and not a goal is foolish. Forcing taxpayers to pay for it is much worse.
As Thomas Jefferson put it, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagations of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.”
Thanks to Mr. Trump, taxpayers are finally off the hook. And Katherine Maher won’t need “Sesame Street” to help her count to zero in federal funds.
Ed Feulner is the founder of the Heritage Foundation.
