David Brooks Defends PBS: “Who’s More Straight Down The Line Than We Are?”
PBS NEWSHOUR: New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart join Amna Nawaz to discuss the week in politics, including what voters think about President Trump’s performance in his first 100 days in office, the issues Democrats are leaning into to counter the administration and Trump’s order threatening federal funds for public media.
AMNA NAWAZ, PBS NEWSHOUR: Well, David, I want to come to you on this other topic, because I know you’re obviously both here because you are believers in the power of public media. We did see President Trump issue this executive order directing that federal funding should be cut for NPR and PBS. He’s alleging bias in the reporting. And it is, as we have seen, the latest move by the president to use executive power and the levers of government to target institutions, media, cultural, academic, that he disagrees with. At its core, what do you believe this is about? DAVID BROOKS, NEW YORK TIMES: At its core, the Trump administration is based on one them, which is, they think progressive elites have destroyed the country, we need to take progressive elites down. And that’s whether they’re in museums and sciences and universities, whatever. And so, in some sense, they have some case to be made that the elites have become a little more progressive. But as they go after CPB, I’m reminded of the call I got 23 years ago from Jim Lehrer offering me this job. And I’m sitting there, of course, in a little league dugout. And Jim said: “You’re going to be on the show on Fridays. We want you out and do a lot of reporting. You got to bring something to the game. This is about journalism.” And I would say, if you think the PBS is biased, compared to who? Name one news organization in America – and I shouldn’t be defending us. I get paid by PBS. [LAUGHTER] But I’m going to do it – who’s more straight down the line than we are. Is it MSNBC? Is it FOX? Is it CNN? Lisa Desjardins, like, one of the great journalists of our time? And so I will defend PBS, A, because I know how good we do in relative terms, but, B, because we travel around the country. We see the local affiliates where they’re not doing some ideological thing. They are the voice of their community. And so that’s one of the reasons I’m violating my normal principle of never defending somebody I work for — [LAUGHTER] — and trying to say, this is how I was hired, to be a journalist. NAWAZ: Jonathan, what do you make of the president’s moves at this time, not just about PBS? This is not just about us. It’s part of a larger campaign here. JONATHAN CAPEHART, WASHINGTON POST: Right. And I was going to say, well, what can I say after that passionate defense of PBS and CPB? But I think what the president is doing, it is a fundamental attack on our Constitution, on the foundation of this country. People need to understand and remember, there is only one profession that is protected in the Constitution, and it is the free press. It is the press. And why? Because the founders understood that the survival of a democracy depends on an informed citizenry. And the citizenry can only be informed by a press that can report and do – report on the affairs of the republic free and unfettered. And whether they are – come from the left or from the right, the government should not interfere with that reporting. And so, when you have a president of the United States who is making it his mission to attack the free press, we should all be concerned, whether we are at PBS or whether we are at MSNBC, because he’s focused on us too.
