President Donald Trump can add another dubious achievement to his list of long-held conservative goals: killing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
After Trump signed a bill clawing back $1 billion in funding, the nonprofit that supports PBS, NPR and more than 1,500 local public TV and radio stations around the country announced it will shut down by the start of next year.
This will please movement conservatives who have long thought the mainstream news media was biased against them. But it comes at a time when their complaints sound hollow.
Conservatives have never had more options to get the news. They can read The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — plus the upcoming California Post — or The Daily Wire, The Federalist, the Daily Caller and Breitbart News. They can listen to local AM talk radio or tune into conservative voices on satellite radio, podcasts and online streaming. They can tune into Fox News, Newsmax TV and One America News Network. Or they can check out conservative influencers on social media, including TruthSocial and X.
Under Trump, conservatives have sought to exert influence over mainstream news outlets as well.
Somehow that is not enough. Under Trump, they have sought to exert influence over mainstream news outlets as well.
Using federal approval of a merger as leverage, Trump has persuaded CBS to agree to an ombudsman who will scrutinize its news coverage for hints of bias. The president cheered when late-night host Stephen Colbert’s show was canceled and demanded more airtime for conservative commentator Greg Gutfeld. He’s made life hard for everyone from “60 Minutes” to The Associated Press to The Wall Street Journal over stories he didn’t like.
The conservative complaints about the news media date back decades to the days of three TV networks, when the evening news and daily newspapers set the nation’s agenda and anchors such as Walter Cronkite had tremendous sway.
Those outlets strove to appear nonpartisan, but many conservatives didn’t see themselves in their coverage. Whether in telling the story of the cultural revolution, the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, the policy and political perspectives of conservatives were not readily reflected in mainstream news coverage. For example, long before Watergate dominated the headlines, President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and affirmative action in government contracting, but never got his due from a skeptical press. When those stories were told, they came filtered through a press corps that viewed the GOP with skepticism, if not outright contempt.
Reagan went around the gatekeepers and spoke straight to the voters.
Then came Ronald Reagan. In the 1980s, he went around the gatekeepers and spoke straight to the voters. He built a direct emotional connection not just with Republicans, but with millions of Democrats — the original “Reagan Democrats.” And in doing so, he exposed the limits of traditional media. Conservatives realized that for the first time they could put forward their own vision of the country.
I remember being in meetings early in my political career decades ago, listening to colleagues vent in ways that sound eerily familiar now: the media was biased toward liberals; conservatives couldn’t get a fair shake.
That feeling of cultural exclusion has never gone away. It’s become part of the conservative DNA. One of the main selling points of radio commentators such as Rush Limbaugh was that he was a lonely voice in the liberal wilderness, helping connect everyone from truckers to commuters to families out for a drive in this new conservative community. Liberals should not underestimate the power of that framing, which has remained strong even as conservative news outlets have grown exponentially more powerful. That sense of being embattled feeds Trump’s attempts to wrest control of the media. It certainly explains the self-defeating decision by so many Republican members of Congress to shut down the CPB, which helps fund local radio and TV stations in rural areas they represent. Those stations provide valuable information on everything from local issues to natural disasters. And let’s not forget: PBS is where William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line” got its start. Public broadcasting helped to mainstream conservatism. That’s the part they conveniently forget. Now, the CPB will lay off most of its staff by September. A skeleton crew will stay on through January to manage its final distributions and obligations. This shutting down of public broadcasting may be pleasing to Trump but it has been a long time goal of Republicans who once cried foul over media bias. As a former Republican county, state and national party chairman and a candidate for public office, I’ve seen unfair stories. I’ve been frustrated with reporters and their reporting of the Republican Party narrative, but I never believed there was a systemic conspiracy against Republicans. Conservatives built a media empire to challenge the establishment, and they did it despite any real or perceived biases; but now demonstrate the very bias they once claimed to fight. For more thought-provoking insights from Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez and Symone Sanders-Townsend, watch “The Weeknight” every Monday-Friday at 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
Michael Steele
Michael Steele is a co-host of "The Weeknight," which airs Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC. He is a former lieutenant governor of Maryland and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee. 
