Time for Trump Makeover of Liberal NPR & PBS

By Michelle Malkin At the close of 2017 no less than seven prominent male hosts and editors of influential government-sponsored radio and television shows are out of work amid claims of sexual harassment. According to their accusers the alleged Malevolent Seven are powerful pervs and creeps whove been running wild at NPR and PBS for decades sponsored and subsidized by taxpayers and corporate donors. In August award-winning broadcast and radio host John Hockenberry departed from his public radio program The Takeaway on New York Citys NPR affiliate which garnered a peak audience of nearly 3 million weekly listeners on more than 270 stations. Female producers and interns accused him of harassment and bullying before and after he deployed his golden parachute. Hockenberry says hes horrified by the allegations. In October NPRs former editorial director and senior vice president of news Michael Oreskes was ousted from his perch after several women claimed he forcibly kissed them in the 1990s while seeking jobs at his previous employer The New York Times. That same month NPR launched an investigation of veteran Minnesota Public Radio host Garrison Keillor creator of A Prairie Home Companion. The liberal icon penned a column defending fellow sexual harassment suspect Sen. Al Franken D-Minn. in late November; the next day NPR fired him for inappropriate behavior involving at least one female co-worker. Keillor says the only incident he recalls involves inadvertently slipping his hand up the bare back of a friend. CARTOONS  TOM STIGLICH VIEW CARTOON Also on the Thanksgiving holiday chopping block: PBS fixture and CBS morning news star Charlie Rose who reportedly groped grabbed phone-harassed and exposed himself to upwards of eight female employees interns and job applicants dating back to the 1990s. At the end of November NPR canned Chief News Editor David Sweeney following an internal review after four of the public radio networks female employees lodged formal complaints involving unwanted kisses attention and gifts. In mid-December Boston-based Tom Ashbrook host of NPRs On Point live morning show broadcast on 290 NPR affiliates stations for the past 16 years was suspended after young women alleged he gave creepy sex talks hugs and back rubs in the studio. Ashbrook says he was stunned to learn of the charges. And last week PBS suspended weeknight host Tavis Smiley whose interview show airs in New York Chicago Philadelphia Southern California and nationwide -- with major corporate underwriting from Walmart. He also hosted a podcast on NPR. Smiley has waged an aggressive campaign defending himself against his employers witch hunt gone too far. I cant tell you whos lying and whos telling the truth but I know with absolute certitude that all seven of these men are left-leaning journalists and pundits encrusted in the public broadcasting establishment. This is a golden opportunity for President Donald Trump to drain the elitist media swamps and inject true intellectual diversity in the newsrooms of NPR and PBS. Liberal bias at these Beltway institutions is notorious -- from NPR legal analyst Nina Totenberg wishing AIDS upon Sen. Jesse Helms and his grandchildren as retributive justice to Sesame Streets Oscar the Grouch mocking Fox News on PBS to top NPR executives slamming the tea party movement as scary and racist to the undercover journalists of Project Veritas. If pushover Republicans cant bring themselves to fully defund NPR and PBS cant they at least step up and advocate for hosts and editors who keep their hands to themselves and refrain from insulting the people in flyover country who keep their rackets afloat? What better time in the wake of liberal hypocrisy and sexual harassment self-implosions to bring real balance to government-sponsored programming? So far the moment is being squandered. The replacements announced for Charlie Rose on PBS are BBC correspondent Katty Kay and former CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour. Thats right. Two liberal British female journalists. Come on Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Do better D.C. All things considered we could use a little more America First and a little less globaloney and groupthink from NPR and PBS. I can think of a conservative female journalist or 12 up to the task.