Shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up. That two-word phrase came into my mind again and again as I watched Representative Marjorie Taylor Green rail against PBS and NPR. In her ten minute opening tirade, Greene denounced public radio and public broadcasting as wasteful and un-American. Which, I mean, nobody says that about Sesame Street. Nobody.
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I will take any one of these Muppets over a thousand Elon Musks. |
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What? Farmers? Have podcasts? Wow, they're just like us! |
She says that the government's rationale behind funding these entities in the first place was to provide educational content and un-biased news to Americans, particularly those who wouldn't otherwise have access. But then she suggests that they're no longer necessary because of the internet and social media makes news and information available to those in remote areas. She knows this because she represents a rural district, and farmers listen to podcasts while they drive their tractors.
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Pictured: Greene, seen here, making an excellent use of our time and our tax dollars. |
Here's some of her opening screed:
"At the same time, NPR and PBS have become radical, left-wing echo-chambers for a narrow audience of mostly wealthy, white urban liberals and progressives who generally look down on and judge rural America."
-Representative Greene, trying
her damnedest to keep us from
thinking about Signalgate
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Well she is a huge conspiracy-theorist, so I suppose a lot of what she says is on-brand? |
Which is weird thing to say. A weird, evidence-free thing to say. Particularly given that the distorted, rabid-foam, paranoid-delusional, conspiracy-theory driven, co-opted, white Christian nationalist version of American conservatism that's currently thrown our nation and consequently the world into upheaval, is fueled largely by the radical, right-wing echo-chamber aimed at a narrow audience of white suburban and rural conservatives and white Christian nationalists who look down on and vilify whomever shit-merchants like Greene tell them too.
I mean, look at these headlines from Fox News' site:
Don't worry, I went incognito, and then showered.
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I'd like to coin the phrase "orange- nosing" to describe people attempting to curry favor with the administration. |
Ok, so "Musk's DOGE pulls back the curtain..." "Killers flaunt twisted kidnapping scheme--but don't last long under Trump Admin." and "NPR chief makes stunning admission about its Hunter Biden laptop coverage." And yes, they're still on about Hunter Biden, whom, if you recall, wasn't an elected official, Republicans just made a career out of going after the President Biden's family. And just above all this is a big headline about Signalgate that misleadingly refers to Judge Boasberg as an Obama-nominated judge (he was first appointed by George W. Bush), and the article itself mostly consists of quotes from Trump's Truth Social account and not, you know, journalism.
Here's the big story on PBS News Hour:
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Not the absence of wild assertions, grievances, and phrases like "radical left" and "activist judges." It's just a recounting of things that happened. |
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I mean his only qualifications in the first place were how woke he's not. |
"Trump officials face more questions as new details from Yemen strike chat revealed." Does it portray the administration in a good light? Not particularly, but it doesn't trash anyone. It's just what's happening.
They do face more questions. Here, let me re-write this if PBS was the left-wing equivalent of Fox: "Trump officials face more questions as details from their major cockup of a national security breach that endangers not only American service members but also global stability emerge." Which, is spicier, sure, but where's the lie?
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This guy started two wars. Two. I never thought I'd long for the days of his buffoonery, but here we are. |
Is it at all possible that NPR and PBS haven't really shifted at all but rather that conservative-leaning media, finding itself unable to draw listeners with stories of how great fiscal responsibility and nuclear family values are, moved increasingly towards sensationalism in an effort stay profitable? I say this because I suspect that nothing going on in the country right now would be recognizably "conservative" to the Republican Party the 1960's. Or the 1990's. Even George W. Bush-era Republicans would have been baying for Pete Hegseth's resignation after this week's debacle.
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We're sick of being painted with one Frasier-colored brush. |
Anyway, enough of my unqualified sociological observations, back to that congressperson who was allowed to heckle every single one of Joe Biden's State of the Union Addresses without censure, and her broad, culture-war-soaked, and broad characterization of conservatives and progressives. I reiterate: shut up shut up shut up. Her summation of the left as wealthy, white urbanites conveniently forgets the tens of millions of people of color and LGBTQIA+ people of all economic levels in all parts of the country. I like NPR, and PBS, but I don't look down on farmers, and I rankle, rankle I say, at Greene's assertion that anyone who has issues with the current administration is a bunch of snobs.
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What? They literally idolize him. |
What I look down on is the way the GOP has leveraged a system designed to give rural states a voice to install an autocrat. They play to rural voters not because they give a damn about them, but because they can leverage the culture wars to win elections. The election was a squeaker. Not the overwhelming viceroy they keep insisting it is. More people voted for someone
other than Trump, and yet they keep banging the mandate drum. I don't hate farmers, I hate MAGA for
exploiting farmers.
False information and bias is exactly what NPR and PBS were set up to combat, and when they question elected officials, instead of just parroting the Presidents dumb, rambling social media tweets, they're doing their job. They're not left-wing, the GOP's just moved so far off anything resembling reason, everyone else seems extreme.
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"NPR and PBS cost about five hundred million a year, while Elon Musk and his companies have taken over $38 in government subsidies, so Marjorie Taylor Green and DOGE can take a flying leap."
-a concerned citizen, speaking to PBS News reporter Kermit D. Frog |