On May 1, President Donald Trump issued an order called “ENDING TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZATION OF BIASED MEDIA.”
After the edict was issued, it became clear that Kari Lake, the acting CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), was going to significantly cut its staffing.
Those cuts have now been announced, and we had better prepare some safe spaces for liberals.
During Trump’s first administration, we saw far more negative than positive coverage of him in the media.
In the midst of his second administration, the media has been on overdrive to take him down, completely ignoring the fact that most of what Trump is doing is exactly what he promised voters he would do.
To that point, after Trump’s first 100 days in office, the Media Research Center reported that 92% of all reporting on Trump was negative. Compare that to a Pew Research Center review of Biden’s first 100 days, which were a complete and utter disaster, where Biden had only 32% negative coverage.
Not only is the coverage negative, but the meat of many reports appears to have been taken out of context, with so-called journalists picking and choosing a small part of a quote or event to create as much outrage as possible.
Trump is no dummy, as some of that slanted coverage is coming at the taxpayer’s expense, and there is no need for Americans to pay for a biased media.
One could easily make the argument that PBS and NPR, both of which have been publicly funded, though not by USAGM, for decades, were two of the biggest violators. I recently listened to an NPR report, and I could not believe how slanted the coverage was.
Trump's order, in part, stated, “…Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage."
It continued, “No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize. The CPB’s governing statute reflects principles of impartiality: the CPB may not “contribute to or otherwise support any political party.”
Ironically, it was Labor Day weekend when Lake announced the most recent wave of cuts.
She stated, "Tonight, the U.S. Agency for Global Media initiated what is known as a reduction in force, or RIF, of a large number of its full-time federal employees. We are conducting this RIF at the President's direction to help reduce the federal bureaucracy, improve agency service, and save the American people more of their hard-earned money.”
Lake continued, "USAGM will continue to fulfill its statutory mission after this RIF -- and will likely improve its ability to function and provide the truth to people across the world who live under murderous Communist governments and other tyrannical regimes. +I look forward to taking additional steps in the coming months to improve the functioning of a very broken agency and make sure America's voice is heard abroad where it matters most."
In all, Lake reportedly cut 532 positions, and I am all for it. Though outlets under USAGM's umbrella, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty once played a crucial role, their blatant bias in recent years has negated any possible justification for continued funding. If they cannot report fairly, and that is all we are asking them to do, then they should not be the recipients of public money.
