Question- why do Republicans hate PBS so much?

Because its programming is educational and fact-based--both anathema to Republicans.

They don't want facts and logic and anything that may conflict with the hateful narrative they are pushing.

They don't want none of that damn liberal culture on their TV sets. Plus there is no NASCAR nor Football.

Because St. Ronny of Reagan told them to 40+ years ago.

Because conservative ideology dictates that the federal government should only pay for the military and roads and everything else should be left to state and local governments and the invisible hand of the market.

Because NPR and PBS are Fox News for the left. Fair and Balanced.

They absolutely do not want objective information being shared.

These are the people who'd rather watch their kids die than get them vaccinated.

Anything to own the libs!

R3 NASCAR, ok, but Football is not a Republican only sport. Most straight men love football.

NASCAR and Golf are very Republican based. Not football.

PBS being compared to Fox News is laughable.

Free markets baby. I remember back in the day that Republicans proclaimed that the free market would supply the arts and science programming which PBS had been providing through newly launched cable channels like A&E, Bravo, The Learning Channel and Discovery. Back when these channels started a case could have been made for this, as the programming was more serious and high-minded when those channels began. Now the free market determined that we'd rather watch Real Housewives and Naked and Afraid than theater, ballet or a science program like NOVA.

It's a shit show.

NPR lamented that “animals deserve pronouns, too.”

In 2021, NPR declared the Declaration of Independence to be a document with “flaws and deeply ingrained hypocrisies.”

NPR subsequently issued an “editor’s note” warning the Declaration of Independence is “a document that contains offensive language.”

NPR sounded the alarm about young men who abstain from masturbating to porn

Five facts about queer animals on Valentine's Day.

A seat at the table: Stay Woke!

In 2021, a PBS station aired a “children’s program” that featured a drag queen named “Lil’ Miss Hot Mess.”

PBS White House Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor characterized President Trump’s patriotic 2020 Mount Rushmore speech as a love letter to “white resentment” that promoted the “myth of America.”

NPR suggested doorway sizes are based on “latent fatphobia.”

PBS produced a documentary making the case for reparations.

That's not even the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg. But you knew that.

NPR reported on the “cousin of diet culture” known as “healthism, which is the idea that we have to be healthy” — as if that was a bad thing.

NPR assigned three reporters to investigate how the thumbs-up emoji is racist.

It’s the same here in Australia. Our election is tomorrow and the leader of the opposition just referred to our equivalent of PBS as “the hate media.”

R11 thinks it’s about ratings?! Lmao. Poor thing.

No, I don't think it's about ratings, dear. That was an excuse the libertarians in the 1980s used. The right hated public broadcasting then as they do now.

Interestingly, Public TV and radio get a lot of corporate support and foundation support from all over the political spectrum. And some of the shit they have on in the early afternoon is enough to put you to sleep. I think the hostility is misplaced.

Too many mixed colors of muppets and people living together on Sesame Street.

Same reason that trans activists hate it when you point out that their ideology makes no sense. Knowledge is power and power upsets the apple cart.

A public broadcasting system is a hallmark of any civilized society. The various hard-right parties across Europe that have gained power in recent years all complained about the liberal political biases of their national public broadcasters and threatened to either slash funding or do away with the channels altogether. Public support for these channels is huge, though, and I can't think of any instances where this has happened.

Anything educational is super suspicious to them

R12, my first thought was that PBS should be saved to preserve the news shows and children’s programming.

My second thought was that NPR should be cut off at the knees.

Reality has a liberal bias. Therefore, any news organization dedicated to reality means that conservatives will decry it as liberal.

The Republican base doesn’t watch PBS so it’s an easy target.

PBS's programming is directed to educated, well informed people who can reason and think for themselves. In other words, non-Trump supporters.

PBS is Marxist, Commies. Trans, Muslims, Blacks, Illegals….

And Antiques Roadshow?

[quote] They absolutely do not want objective information being shared.

There's no objectivity in information. It's an illusion.

I think the question can be shortened to the first three words, OP. Why do Republicants hate?

It challenges them to think which they are not capable of having no brain.

We absolutely did not all grow up with PBS. Where I grew up in the rural south,, PBS was openly regarded as for “the nerds.” This was in the eighties, and the hostility was out then. I never understood why this gentle TV network was so derided.

Standard American anti-intellectualism.

For the same reason they hate America democracy

Is PBS considered network TV? Pretty sure it never was

No, it's state funded television.

A mayor and governor said taxpayers shouldn't support broadcast operations. Rudy Giuliani sold New York's WNYC-AM-FM & TV. Chris Christie sold New Jersey Network's TV and FM stations. Both now owned by local affiliates of PBS and NPR.

[quote] A mayor and governor said taxpayers shouldn't support broadcast operations.

Much as I love PBS, I can't completely disagree with this.

Yes, taxpayers should only support mass murder.

They are opposed to anything free.

My father was convinced PBS was “out to get” children to disobey their parents. This was based on a 30 second glimpse of a “choose your own ending” type of program that explored ramifications of choosing path A or B in the scenarios presented. He was highly threatened and offended by the thought of children being encouraged to use their powers of reasoning instead of blind obedience.

Background: he was a blue-collar laborer in the 70s, and a registered democrat back then. But — how can I say this succinctly — he was culturally MAGA then and is most likely a registered Republican now.

[quote]A mayor and governor said taxpayers shouldn't support broadcast operations.

[quote]Much as I love PBS, I can't completely disagree with this.

Federal funding accounts for about 15% of PBS’s total revenue, roughly $1.40 per taxpayer per year, according to PBS.

Most Western countries value having at least one TV channel that doesn't exist for the sole purpose of making a profit. In the U.S., you have 500+ commercial TV stations with the most mind-numbing content--surely you can have at least ONE non-commercial one that offers more than entertainment alone? The mere fact that hard-right, populist European leaders such as Meloni, Kickl, and Wilders routinely rail against the idea of publicly funded television is a reason to hang onto it.

The same poor and middle-class MAGA voters who say nothing when billions in tax cuts for the rich are announced no doubt applaud this.

Because they're assholes.

R39 if you’re telling the truth you would acknowledge Democrats were different back then. Many Dems were still very conservative

R39, “culturally MAGA” is a good way to describe the confusion of my childhood. My dad was a big Union Democrat, teaching me to never cross a picket line. He also railed against Jesus freaks and the white collar Wall Street Republicans. But he and many of the other adults around me, while Democrats, operated under what I now recognize as a MAGA mindset. It was different because life in general was less political and less divided, but it was always there.

Indeed, the divisions have always been there. We must recall that in the 1970s — the period R39 and R44 reference — Republican Richard Nixon signed the act that established the EPA. And it was the Republicans that wanted to keep church and state separate until Raygun offered the radical right a great deal of power to overlook the fact that religion basically condemns everything that the Republicans wanted (and want) to do. Until then, Republicans were among the first and major donors to Planned Parenthood; part of what sunk Mitt Romney was his revelation that he and Ann had donated contemporaneously.

Not coincidentally, research I've been doing on the housing market lead me to an interesting article on the American empire that flatly showed that we peaked in 1973 when income inequality was at its lowest point. And I can't disagree. It seems that America has been on a downward trajectory since, and the goals that the Republicans had with Nixon were simply delayed until a huckster conman emerged with the ability to lie about everything and pay no consequence. The cast of characters is even the same, by and large; think Roger Stone.

I can understand the hatred that every generation since the Boomers (and even a good chunk of Boomers themselves) hates the Boomers. They were given everything and either kept if for themselves or, like our democracy that gave it to them, pissed it away.

[quote]They were given everything and either kept if for themselves or, like our democracy that gave it to them, pissed it away.

Then, when Boomers have left a smoking hole in the ground, they said - fuck all y'all - we got ours and fuck the rest of you.

[quote]PBS is Marxist, Commies. Trans, Muslims, Blacks, Illegals….

And Woke, R25. Don't forget Woke.

Republicans don’t want to encourage any independent thought or critical thinking. Censorship is coming to your country.

Old school Republicans don't hate it that much. There are few of those left however.

MAGA types hate it because they hate PBS News mostly. I don't think they actually watch enough PBS to be aware that's a small portion of its output

[quote]we got ours and fuck the rest of you

I am a boomer that don't got mine.

Because they’re a bunch of raging cunts

PBS brought "Monty Python", "Fawlty Towers", "Absolutely Fabulous", "Dr. Who", etc to the US. For that, it should be cherished.

Conservative in general and MAGAs in particular want to take America back to the 1950s, a time before PBS or NPR existed. So, why fund something that didn't exist back then?

Because it is publicly funded, and the fundamental basis of Republican politics is privatization. They believe the public is a resource that exists to be used and exploited by the wealthy in-group and will always oppose anything that empowers or uplifts them.

R38 It's not FREE. Our taxes pay for a significant part of it whether we watch or not.

[quote]Because it is publicly funded, and the fundamental basis of Republican politics is privatization. They believe the public is a resource that exists to be used and exploited by the wealthy in-group and will always oppose anything that empowers or uplifts them.

This is some of it but not all. If PBS were to broadcast far-right propaganda content similar to Fox News, NewsMax etc. then Republicans would be all for it and would want to INCREASE the funding to PBS because they were providing an important public service. But PBS is facts based and unfortunately facts tend to be inconvenient and offensive to Republicans and especially to Trump and the MAGA cult.