A SDGOP group wants to stop funding for public broadcasting because their feelings were hurt.

I had this forwarded to me tonight, and frankly, it’s kind of dumb. And whiney. A subset of the South Dakota Republican Party is apparently on a campaign to defund public broadcasting.

Is it because philosophically they don’t believe this should be a function of state government? Well, not really if you read into their lament. It’s because they feel picked on.

From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2026 12:25 PM
Cc: Jeannie Franceus
Subject: ACTION NEEDED SOONEST ON THE SDPB RESOLUTION
Greetings! This is a status update on the resolution recommending defunding of SDPB political programming.
1. First of all, twenty-three county e-boards signed onto the original version.

2. Since then, feedback from several sources identified a couple of suggested changes that make great sense for inclusion in an update to the language of the resolution. These changes were iterated before and after the testimony given to the Joint Appropriations Committee on Wed, 21 January by Jeannie Franceus:

A. It was noted that SDPB funds critical infrastructure for the state’s emergency broadcasting system (incl. Amber alerts) that includes towers, communications systems, facilities, etc. The resolution needs to be refocused on only defunding the biased programming to make it easier for the legislators to take action (and not vote no because it would otherwise result in defunding critical stuff).

B. Sen. Taffy Howard brought up the concept of using subscription services to fund popular programming like high school sports events (just like a lot of networks use these days). It makes eminent sense to include and recommend this in the updated resolution for the legislature to determine.

3. The original version was given by Jeannie to the JAC with the comment that a “final version” would be updated and delivered “in a few days,” including with potentially more signatories.

4. Accordingly, this email is a request to review the updated version that is attached and go to the well again with your e-board to ascertain whether your county will sign on.

5. If we can break the threshold of 30 counties signing on, Chairman Eschenbaum has agreed to sign it out on behalf of the SDGOP, otherwise, the wording will say what it does in the attached version (“the undersigned members of the South Dakota Republican Party…”).

6. As before, if you can’t get an “e-board signature,” please provide the names and titles of individuals among your e-board who will sign.

Please take action soonest so that we can impact the JAC’s deliberations on this topic.

Many thanks in advance for your prompt reply! As before Jeannie will be whipping your votes.

TNX
Stu
Bon Homme County

Resolution Recommending the Defunding of Politically-Biased Programming by the South Dakota Public Broadcas… by Pat Powers

“WHEREAS, SDPB is a division of the South Dakota Bureau of Information and Telecommunications, a state agency, which pays the salaries of SDPB employees, buys equipment for the network and provides space for the network operations through the University of South Dakota, a state-supported school, all of which are used to regularly report disparagingly of conservative Republicans and their values while reporting supportively of liberal Democrats and their values.”

This does not seem to be a philosophical debate about what should be versus what should be not a function of state government. It seems that a few members of the central committee just want to go crying because they think someone is picking on them.

At the same time they think Public Broadcasting sure can go ahead and put in the equipment and capabilities of broadcasting pay-per view. But don’t report despairingly on them or be mean.

They note that if enough crybabies sign on that people are picking on them, the state Republican Party chairman will claim that it came from the entire Republican Party.

Instead of a bunch of whiners.