I should explain, at the outset, that I am agnostic on the subject of public broadcasting. It’s obvious that NPR suffers from a left-wing bias—so obvious that it seems not to be noticed by NPR—but the fact is that I seldom listen to its programming except the classical music on one (WETA) of the two NPR stations in Washington. I have an allergy to the characteristic public broadcasting voice—the smirking whines of Ira Glass and Terri Gross, the smug tremolo of Kurt Andersen and Bill Moyers—and so routinely avoid them. But I do value WETA’s status as the only classical music station in Washington, and would miss it if it were to disappear, especially since the market has demonstrated that no private broadcaster would fill the vacuum. 

The fact is that the kind of radio and television I like—classic jazz and classical music, arcane documentaries on history, literature, and science—is nearly nonexistent on the air, except on PBS and NPR. Ostensible cable channels—History, Learning, Discovery, Arts & Entertainment etc.—are now either predominantly lowbrow or relentlessly lowbrow; and while I enjoy the occasional slumfest (“Teen Mom 2,” “Hoarders”), there is no place on commercial radio and television for the kind of elitist fare that is occasionally found on PBS and NPR.