Former, and likely future State Legislative Candidate Joel Koskan is in the news with a topic that hasn’t been mentioned in a couple of years, but has certainly come up before with a call to defund South Dakota Public Broadcasting:
Joel Koskan of Wood used Twitter to criticize talk-show host Lori Walsh for her Thursday segment with Ibram X. Kendi, author of several books on black history including “How to Be an Anti-Racist.”
Koskan tweeted on Saturday, August 7, “I’m thinking that @MomentSDPB is forgetting who pays her salary. #SDleg needs to defund these radical loving liberals in our media. @govkristinoem@IanTFury@SDPBNews“
Koskan, who’s made several runs for the state Senate in recent years, didn’t give any ground when another SDPB commentator subsequently engaged him on Twitter. Kevin Woster tweeted, “Did you listen to the interview with Kendi? Nothing radical at all. Measured and thoughtful. And he went out of his way to not be critical of the governor, saying if there were were errors in his book, as the governor says there are, he would welcome the chance to correct them.”
That’s throwing down a big gauntlet, as defunding or privatizing South Dakota Public Broadcasting has definitely come up over the past 20-30 years.
Larry Pressler loudly called for it in the US Senate back in 1995, which saw Governor Janklow defending SDPB in the legislature in 1996, after the legislature cut $100,000 of their budget, noting that..
(Argus Leader, Sept 12, 1996)
Governor Janklow also noted that “In a Democracy, what could be better than a well informed public?”
Defunding Public Broadcasting also came back in 2005 in Congress, so it’s one of those issues that never seems to go away.
Should SDPB fend for themselves, or are they a vital part of communicating in a rural state? What are your thoughts?
Yes, defund public broadcasting, including NPR. They are not needed and it is not the government’s job to pay for news or entertainment. If a show can’t stand on its own merits why should taxpayer subsidize it? The same goes for the National Endowment for the Arts. If you aren’t good enough to have make a living at your “art” then maybe you need to find a new line of work. There is plenty of welfare being paid out there already without paying for this.
This is a powerful message that withstands scrutiny on merit.
The alternative, though, corporate sponsorship of private radio operations isn’t much better.
The notion of an information superhighway is strategically interesting, but cable corporations (spying censors in many cases) will bellow and cry if we use tax dollars to support information exchange.
Hybrid communistic/capitalistic/free-marketistic is not working well at all.
Public radio is so terribly bad and misinformed, as are most SD newspapers.
We do not have security for prosecutors, journalists, judges, politicians, and more.
We are one death threat away from unconstitutional activity in all of these (and more) sectors.
Worse than January 6th will result if we take matters into our own hands.
Strength is endurance.
Stay strong.
Why is a tweet from Joel Koskan newsworthy?
I second this. Nice “work” Bob. Who cares?
Yes they should be defunded. I tried it and was soundly rebuked . They should be able to support them selves just like all other media. Broadcast from the session could be bid on by all , a win/win for the tax payers .
The State of South Dakota should do away with subsidies for SDPB and sponsor Newsmax instead. There is only one source for the truth!
They shouldn’t get a single penny in tax payer dollars
is there a single corner of the state left which does not have commercial broadcasting?
The whole reason it was funded in the first place was because there were remote area which could support commercial broadcasting, and it was felt to be necessary for civil defense communications.
That’s over. Cut the funding.
^ this
I already bought the entire DVD set of The New Red Green Show, so I don’t need to watch SDPB anymore, and there are a lot of more credible sources for news, so why are my hard-earned taxpayer dollars going to give jobs to the folks at SDPB? If the programming is so good they should be able to get willing sponsor and/or advertisers. They have truly outlived their usefulness.