In Senate floor remarks on Tuesday night, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) took aim at publicly-funded media.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Put that one down, John, and put up the next one.
00:02I've talked, and I'm not going to repeat,
00:04I've talked a lot about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
00:08and its two cousins, National Public Radio and PBS.
00:19United States taxpayers spend $500 million a year
00:23subsidizing these media organizations.
00:27I've talked about that.
00:30There was a time when maybe we needed to do that
00:33back in the 40s and the 50s
00:36when we only had three TV stations
00:39and a handful of radio stations.
00:41It might have been necessary for government
00:43to get in the TV and radio business,
00:47particularly to help our citizens in rural areas.
00:51But those days are gone.
00:53Now there are all kinds of forms of media.
00:55We've got TV, newspapers, radios.
01:02We've got the Internet.
01:03We've got Facebook.
01:05We've got blogs.
01:07We've got podcasts.
01:09We've got cable TV.
01:11We've got streaming TV.
01:13But yet the government continues to spend $500 million a year
01:21to subsidize the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,
01:28the National Public Radio, and PBS.
01:32And it ought to stop.
01:35It ought to stop.
01:37President Trump's talked about it.
01:39Many members of Congress have talked about it.
01:41I've talked about it on the floor of the Senate.
01:44Now some of my colleagues say the reason it ought to stop
01:47is because the so-called journalism being published by NPR and PBS,
01:56which get their money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,
02:01which gets its money from you out of your pocket,
02:04$500 million a year.
02:06Some of my colleagues say,
02:08well, we ought to stop it because the reporting is biased.
02:11And they've marshaled a persuasive argument to that effect.
02:14I mean, I've talked about some of the articles that have appeared
02:21paid for with the American people's tax dollars.
02:25I'm not going to go through all of them,
02:27but I'll just mention a couple.
02:29Here's one.
02:30How racism became a marketing tool for country music.
02:35That's pretty fair and balanced, huh?
02:41Here's another one.
02:44The hidden racism of young white Americans.
02:52AP fact check.
02:54Trump cedes race animus with COVID falsehood.
03:00Here's another one.
03:03Biden trumpets economic gains but struggles to get credit.
03:12Here's another one.
03:13Democracy on trial, part one.
03:17A blueprint for the case against Trump.
03:21Let's pay for all your tax dollars.
03:24This is opinion journalism.
03:29But it's not just at the national level.
03:34It's in my state, too.
03:37It's in Louisiana.
03:38Louisiana has 318 radio stations.
03:49Only 10 of them get money from federal taxpayers
03:53through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
03:56So the folks who are publishing the articles I just referenced
04:01picked 10 out of 138 in Louisiana and said,
04:05we're going to favor you and give you money.
04:08My state also has 48 TV stations.
04:11Eight of them get federal money, your dollars.
04:19I don't know what the other ones did not to get federal money,
04:25but clearly this is a case of the federal government picking and choosing.
04:28Let's see what they've done with the money.
04:38Put up the local ones, John.
04:42I'll just read you a couple of the headlines paid for with your dollars
04:46in my local public media organizations.
04:55How illegitimate critical race theory concerns
05:00shaped Louisiana's new social studies standards.
05:05Nobody's there.
05:08Trump's anti-trans effort is an agenda cornerstone
05:13with echoes in history.
05:16No bias there.
05:21That came from NPR
05:22and one of my local stations.
05:26Here's another.
05:27What it's like to choose
05:28transgender sex reassignment surgery.
05:32Another.
05:32Transgender boy tells mom
05:34it shouldn't be scary to be who we are.
05:39Here's another one.
05:43This came from WRKF,
05:45which also gets,
05:47it's one of the 10 out of 138 radio stations
05:51that the bureaucrats at CPB look with favor on.
05:56Kids will end their lives.
05:58Anti-trans legislation is impacting mental health in the Gulf South.
06:03No bias there.
06:04Biography examines how systemic racism shaped the troubled life of George Floyd.
06:14Nobody has to take responsibility.
06:17Systemic racism.
06:18Here's another that came from WRKF.
06:25Christian nationalism support is strongest in rural conservative states.
06:30Another.
06:30Dr. Rachel Levine focused on her job at HHS.
06:34Yes, still anti-trans politics followed her.
06:40Here's another one by WRKF.
06:44Another example of opinion journalism.
06:46Pay for your taxpayer dollars.
06:48These far-right media figures are getting center stage under Trump.
06:53Let me see another one, John.
07:03But there's more, as they say, on The Price is Right or something like that.
07:10Here's another one.
07:12This came from Louisiana Public Broadcasting.
07:16Becoming Papa.
07:17Father's key to gender justice.
07:21I can tell you that every mom and dad in Louisiana,
07:24when they lie down to sleep at night and they can't,
07:29they're lying there worried about gender justice.
07:33Not.
07:33I mean, the article, the title of the article suggests what you ought to believe.
07:44That's not fair or balanced.
07:46Here's another one.
07:49Transgender athletes seek protections to play sports.
07:53Let me see the next one, John.
07:57Put that one up for me.
08:01This is John Lowry who works with me.
08:04He's a fine American.
08:08Here's a, I love this one.
08:09This is, this is from my, one of my local radio stations in Louisiana.
08:14Arguments that trans athletes have an unfair advantage
08:17lack evidence to support.
08:21What, what planet did, did this reporter parachute in from?
08:29He or she really believes that men don't have a physical advantage?
08:33Over a woman in sports?
08:40Here's another headline.
08:42Trump embodies nearly every aspect of a racist, author says.
08:47Another.
08:48The nation confronting Trump's coded racism.
08:52This is coming from my local TV and radio stations
08:55that get money from the corporation for public broadcast.
08:58Here's another one.
09:02Sexism is out in the open in the 2016 campaign.
09:06That may have been inevitable.
09:08I wonder who the author of this piece voted for.
09:13Here's another one.
09:14Is Trump really that racist?
09:19I wonder who that reporter voted for.
09:29Here's the final one I'm going to mention.
09:32I don't want to put too fine a point on this,
09:34but scientists start to tease out
09:36the subtler ways racism hurts health.
09:42Now look.
09:46You don't have to be a Latin scholar
09:49to see that these articles are biased.
09:52Every single one of them.
09:55At the federal level
09:56and at the state and local level in Louisiana.
10:02And you know what?
10:05That's the right
10:06of these state and local television stations.
10:10They have the right to say this stuff.
10:14But they don't have the right to say it with your money.
10:17They don't have the right to say it with your money.
10:19Some of my colleagues are angry
10:22at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
10:28and NPR and PBS
10:32because of their obviously biased reporting.
10:35Now that's just a fact.
10:36No fair-minded American
10:38can look at these headlines
10:39and say those aren't biased.
10:42And some of my colleagues are mad about that.
10:46That's not what concerns me the most.
10:47I'm sorry they're mad,
10:49but that's not what concerns me the most.
10:53My question is this.
10:54What in God's name,
10:56what on God's green earth
10:57are we doing
10:59with a $36 trillion deficit
11:02and $36 trillion worth of debt
11:07which is just accumulated deficits?
11:09Why are we giving
11:11certain TV stations
11:13and certain radio stations
11:15in America
11:16but not others
11:18$500 million a year?
11:21Why?
11:22They don't
11:24need it.
11:27And even if they did need it
11:30they shouldn't get
11:31the money
11:32to the exclusion
11:33of every other media organization.
11:35what happened
11:38to treating
11:39all people
11:40and all entities
11:41similarly
11:42situated
11:43similarly?
11:45And so
11:46that's why I support
11:48abolishing
11:48the Corporation
11:49for Public Broadcasting.
11:52I want to say it again.
11:54The people
11:55who wrote
11:56these articles
11:56and the people
11:57who published
11:58these articles
11:59have every right
12:00to do that.
12:01I mean
12:03I'm a firm believer
12:04in the First Amendment.
12:06Without the First Amendment
12:07how are we supposed
12:08to know
12:08who the idiots are?
12:10I support
12:11the First Amendment.
12:14And these folks
12:15have the right
12:15to publish that.
12:16But they do not
12:17have the right
12:18to publish it
12:19with taxpayer money.
12:22$500 million
12:24a year.
12:26And
12:26we know how
12:28I think you know
12:29how I feel.
12:31We know how
12:32President Trump
12:32feels.
12:33But I hope
12:33the United States
12:34Congress
12:35in our
12:36reconciliation package
12:38abolishes
12:39the Corporation
12:40for Public Broadcasting
12:41and no longer
12:43gives them
12:45or any media
12:46organization
12:46in this country
12:47a single
12:49solitary dime
12:50of taxpayer money.
12:53That's not
12:54the role
12:54of the federal
12:55government.
12:55and given
12:57these kind
12:58of articles
12:59to do so
13:00to do so
13:03incites
13:04the anger
13:05of at least
13:05half of our country.
13:07And that's
13:08not right.