Suppose there were a nationwide radio network that used millions of taxpayer dollars to promote a conservative viewpoint day after day and to attack liberal politicians and policies.
Liberals would naturally be infuriated and would demand an end to taxpayer funding of such a network. So would conservatives who hold the constitutional view that government should not be funding a politically driven radio network — no matter whom it attacks.
Well, there is no such network. There are conservatives on radio, of course, but whether or not you like what they say, they pay their own way through advertising and other private sources. They generally do not get money from the government to promote their views.
There is, however, a very liberal presence on radio — National Public Radio — that gets millions of dollars from taxpayers, many of whom sharply disagree with the almost relentlessly liberal perspective of NPR.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives recently tried, and unfortunately failed, to end that funding. They sponsored a bill that would have denied to NPR the usual millions of dollars it gets in federal grants through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
That is unfortunate. Liberal radio programs, like conservative programs, should have to succeed or fail on their own merits in the free market. American taxpayers should not be forced to underwrite either liberal or conservative broadcasts with which they may disagree.
When a new Republican House majority is sworn in next month, de-funding NPR may not be its highest priority. But it should be somewhere on Congress’ “to-do” list.