Photo by Thomson200 - Wikimedia Commons
PBS Offices in Alrington Viriginia
PBS offices in Arlington, VA (2019)
The tide is turning in this fight against Republican fascism, and if you listen you can hear it. And when you hear it, you can feel it. And by God, if you can feel it, well then let it move you to take action.
After catching punch after punch from the most anti-American administration in our 248-year history, some of our most cherished institutions and artists in this country are finally hitting back and hitting back hard. Politicians were never going to be the answer, my friends, because history tells us that when the people lead, the so-called leaders will follow ...
Me? As a Navy veteran, who has had a steady, 42-year professional relationship with the written word, I spit on Trump and his repeated attacks on America. As readers, I know you do too. This morning, NPR and PBS signaled they, too, have had enough of this loudmouth traitor and sued him over his order to cut their funding.
It's Our Money, Not Trump’s
So let’s get this part out of the way quickly: Trump has no damn authority here. It is not his money. In fact, let me repeat that one for emphasis: IT IS NOT HIS MONEY. It is OURS.
But I’ll let a paragraph from the stations’ lawsuit speak to that:
“The president has no authority under the Constitution to take such actions. On the contrary, the power of the purse is reserved to Congress.”
This one’s cut and dry, but as usual, you can expect the America-attacker and his odious lawyers to kick it up to Chief Justice John Roberts’ bought-and-paid-for Supreme Court. As usual, they could nip all this silliness in the bud, if they actually cared about the rule of law in this country.
It’s worth saying here, too, that neither NPR nor PBS are going away whether they get this subsidy or not. Just 2 % of NPR’s budget comes from federal monies. PBS’s situation is a bit more tenuous, with 15 percent of their budget coming from those grants. The bulk of their funding comes from private grants, subscribers, donations, and an increasing amount of advertising. If you want to help, I’ll leave this here.
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The government subsidy they receive is used primarily to aid in funding local operations and to create original programming. And, no surprise, rural areas would be hurt worst if these cuts were to pass because the convicted felon, Trump, has never cared who he assaults.
While I was at Stars and Stripes, the editorially independent newspaper that serves the troops and their families overseas, we too took a small stipend from the government to help fund our operations. Like PBS and NPR, most of our operating budget came from other sources. In Stripes’ case that was subscriptions, single-copy sales and advertising dollars.
Attack on America
That didn’t stop Trump from trying to cut that funding during his first disastrous term, until it was pointed out to him that Stripes had the longest, most dangerous circulation route in the world. If he somehow cut that federal funding and doused the troops’ only news source, he, not our enemies, would be responsible for it.
Well, he backed off, and stomped off into his corner to contemplate another attack on America that would commence on January 6, 2021 …
It should also be pointed out that none of these pathetic efforts by Republicans to keep America ignorant and stupid are new. They have pulled this stunt time and again and failed.
I’ll pull from a recent piece in The New York Times to highlight their most epic setback:
The most dramatic showdown between legislators and public media defenders came more than a half-century ago. In 1969, Fred Rogers, the creator of the children’s TV show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” testified before Congress to protest cuts to public media proposed by the Nixon administration. After his testimony, which underscored the value of helping children manage their emotions, a proposal to cut public media funding by half was waved away by Senator John O. Pastore, a Democrat.
“Looks like you just earned the $20 million,” Mr. Pastore said to Mr. Rogers.
It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood … and if guys like Rogers can stand up to this kind of nonsense, it would be about time all these damn universities and corporations along with their “news” networks did the same.
Enter CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley.
Pelley, whose station is also being sued by the serial-lying Trump, started getting some big-time attention today for a commencement address he delivered last week.
Speaking to graduates at North Carolina’s Wake Forest University, the veteran journalist said this:
“In this moment, this morning, our sacred rule of law is under attack. Journalism is under attack. Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack.”
Here’s some damn fine reporting from the Independent, on Pelley’s important speech:
Delivering his address in theatrical fashion, frequently raising his arms to the heavens like an evangelical pastor, Pelley continued: “Insidious fear is reaching through our schools, our businesses, our homes and into our private thoughts.
“The fear to speak ... in America,” he added, stressing the word to emphasize his horror and dismay in the speech on May 19. “Power can rewrite history, with grotesque, false narratives. They can make criminals heroes, and heroes criminals. Power can change the definition of the words we use to describe reality. Diversity is now described as illegal. Equity is to be shunned. Inclusion is a dirty word. This is an old playbook, my friends. There is nothing new in this.”
What To Do Now?
I won’t lie, I almost wept when I read this, because there has been so damn little of it coming from people who should know better. I am so sick and tired of reading the words: “Trump is doing this now … Trump is doing this now … Trump is doing this now …” over and over and over again that I could spit.
What I want to read about is just what in the hell we are doing about it.
Well, as I noted above the tide seems to finally be changing here, too, and lifting us all up, as patriots like Bruce Springsteen use their influence to enlighten and pushback on this authoritarian punk.
“I've always tried to be a good ambassador for America,” said Springsteen while introducing a performance of “My City of Ruins” in Manchester, England, two weeks ago. “I've spent my life singing about where we have succeeded and where we've come up short in living up to our civic ideals and our dreams. I always just thought that was my job. Things are happening right now in my home that are altering the very nature of our country's democracy and they're simply too important to ignore.”
Perfectly put, Boss … On Sunday evening Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello jumped to Springsteen’s defense and pressed the attack on the America-hating Trump.
From reporting in Rolling Stone today:
When Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello took the stage at Boston Calling Music Festival on Sunday evening, his solo set featured a pointed message. On the screen behind him, a graphic compiled nearly two dozen buttons that read and spelled out “Fuck Trump,” labeled the president a “tyrant,” and referred to him as the “Hater in Chief.” Addressing the crowd, Morello said: “Welcome, brothers and sisters, to the last big event before they throw us all in jail.”
Morello used the performance to join the legion of musicians backing Bruce Springsteen in the musician’s recent standoff with Donald Trump.
“Bruce is going after Trump because Bruce, his whole life, he’s been about truth, justice, democracy, equality,” Morello said. “And Trump is mad at him because Bruce draws a bigger audience. F––k that guy.”
Damn straight.
Corporate Media Submission
With our corporate media too often failing us, and even submitting to authoritarianism … While phonies like Jake Tapper attack what has passed and ignore the very real and present danger … While the Democratic Party fumbles at the switches to come up with a consistent, unified message … We must look to the arts—our musicians, writers, sculptors, painters, filmmakers—to be truth-tellers during this fascist assault on our nation, and Trump’s grotesque attempt to end us.
You, my friends, must be truth-tellers, and get out there and spread words that you know to be true and righteous to everybody—whether they want to hear them or not.
We must be the change, because while we didn’t ask for this fight, we damn sure better win it.
D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.
