Date of Award

Spring 5-8-2026

Document Type

Research Paper

Department

Whittier Scholars Program

First Advisor

Joe Donnelly

Second Advisor

Scott Creley

Abstract

The sword and shield conservatives wield in their crusade against the CPB are contradictory constructs that represent the hypocrisy, greed, and monopolistic inclinations that underpin the efforts to kill public broadcasting. The Shield that conservatives stand behind is the rhetorical defenses employed to degrade the institution of Public Broadcasting. Arguments like protecting the American Family in the culture wars from programming like PBS’ Tales of the City (1993), or accusing NPR of being a biased, inaccurate journalistic outlet, and reducing PBS and NPR to only serving “wealthy, white, urban liberals and progressives, who generally look down on and judge rural America,” argues DOGE Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Arguments such as these are steeped in anti-intellectualism that is presented as anti-elitism, which only further harms the rural communities being ‘defended’ here. Internal PBS data shows that 60% of its audience lives in rural communities and 63% of its annual audience of  130 million Americans identified as Republican or Independent (PBS 2026, par.15-17).  The Sword is the fiscal movement and connections that thrum under the rhetorical Shield and was ultimately the main motivation behind cutting federal funding to this institution.

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