From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. In his victory speech on Tuesday night, Republican incumbent Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina said he would no longer compromise with Democrats over fiscal responsibility.

Everything I've seen, every compromise, every bipartisan agreement for the 12 years I've been

in the House and the Senate has been more spending, more borrowing, more debt and a bigger government.

If we can debate how many government programs to cut, how much to lower the debt, then I can

work with people.

And that's what we're going to do this time.

One of the programs consigned to DeMince Chopping Block, Public Media.

About a week ago, he wrote an op-ed in the Washington Examiner titled,

Let NPR Fend for Itself on the Market.

Well, let's discuss.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting created in 1967

has an annual budget of about $400 million. That money is dispersed to public radio and TV

affiliates around the country and indirectly to NPR. To be clear, government funding makes up

only a small percentage of most stations' budgets.

For example, here at WNYC, we're told it's around 6%.

Nevertheless, in a time of economic recession, should the government reconsider its funding for public broadcasting?

Reason.com editor-in-chief, Nick Gillespie, says yes. Public media was created to serve, quote,

the public interest, says Gillespie. And what exactly does that mean? The idea of a public interest is

philosophically, politically, linguistically, incoherent. Linguistically? My enthusiasm ran away with me there for a second.

But I support defunding not because I dislike art, not because I dislike culture or dislike

radio or many things on PBS, but precisely because I like them.

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