On Wednesday morning, the House Subcommittee on Government Efficiency conducted a hearing regarding the continued funding of public broadcasting. Chaired by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the hearing’s purpose was to speak directly with the leadership of the two primary outlets of public broadcasters. Primary witnesses were the President and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Paula Kerger, as well as National Public Radio CEO Katherine Maher.
The hearing was a clearly divided affair, with Republicans taking the adversarial position, and Democrats resorting to base defense of the two outlets, and lodging accusations at their GOP rivals. Rote partisan politics aside, this was not a banner day for the federally-funded entities.
First, the absurdities.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) posited that Republicans were concerned Elmo was part of the Communist party,…
