Publicly funded television and radio programing has become a waste of money for our government. What with heading the conflict in Libya and the war we have in the Middle East we can not be wasting money on public programs.
There would be few ramifications from the ridding of Arthur or Sesame Street. The shows Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) airs provide little more than entertainment. Public schools exist for a reason. We do not need our television claiming to “educate” when we have a perfectly functioning school system in place. Any actual knowledge derived from shows like Cyberchase can either be taught to a child by his or her parent or the public school that he or she can attend for free.
As for National Public Radio (NPR), though it may claim to be an unbiased and objective source of journalism, that is not always the case. Liberal views as well as unneccessary programming are clearly demonstrated in the broadcasts. The weekend show The Splendid Table does not provide any helpful news; last time I checked, how to cook did not have anything to do with the national welfare. This is not only the case with The Splendid Table but also with shows like Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion have absolutely no benefit and U.S. citizens’ money should not be wasted on Keillor’s tangents.
Not only is the news biased on the liberal side, but the news is extraneous. If you have access to a radio you can get news from a number of private sources. With that ability, there is no point in the government funding NPR. There are plenty of other radio stations that serve as perfectly good journalistic outlets.
Cutting the funding for PBS, NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would greatly benefit this nation. These publicly funded media sources serve no additional benefit to our country. So why not cut the funding and put it somewhere more useful like our military?