Media Research Center’s News Busters recently published a study which delves deep into just how bias PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, is; in fact, it’s 90% of the time. The taxpayer-funded media service claims in its bio on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “PBS’s editorial independence is central to our work and will never change. We produce trustworthy content that features unbiased reporting.”
As Newsbusters writes, “one of the most ignored passages in legislative history is the phrase in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967: Taxpayer-funded media outlets should observe “strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature.”
Media Research Center (MRC) finds PBS’s flagship NewsHour program aired nine times more coverage in favor of the left-wing “woke” position on so-called “LGBTQ” issues compared to more traditional positions:
Over the seven-month period of March 1 through September 30, 2023, supportive coverage almost wholly dominated the “debate,” if you could call it that: 172 minutes for the left vs. 19 minutes for the right. That’s 90.2% supportive coverage for the side pushing “identity” issues.
It was even worse for in-studio guests: 19 to one — and the one utterance that opposed the left-wing position came from gay tennis star Billie Jean King, who dared to suggest that men shouldn’t compete in women’s sports once it came to advanced competitions like the Olympics.
⚠️ Taxpayer-funded propaganda: @PBS @NewsHour pushes radical gender ideology 90% of the time. https://t.co/Ea1VHbJxBe
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) October 4, 2023
Dissent was instead limited to isolated soundbites, such as a clip from a legislator on a statehouse floor. Those statements were typically cued up for an in-studio journalist or trans-activist (sometimes it was hard to tell the difference) to either neutralize as somehow false or to condemn as a threat to trans children.
STUDY METHODOLOGY:
The study covered a seven-month period, March 1, 2023—September 30, 2023, encompassing every edition of the PBS NewsHour, Monday through Friday, approximately 152 hours of programming. (Not included: The half-hour PBS News Weekend show, a separate entity with different hosts that airs on Saturday and Sunday.) “Guests” consisted of sources who appeared in-studio or remotely, including journalists who worked for PBS member stations nationwide. “Supportive coverage” was defined as coverage that either treated gender identity issues as non-controversial or actively supported that side of the debate. Fleeting mentions in news roundups were not included.
Continue Reading: NewsBusters.org
