I sympathize with Michael Madore [ABQJOURNAL OPINION/GUEST_COLUMNS: Get Government Out of TV, Radio], who resents his tax dollars going to NPR, PBS, and other services with an “offensive liberal slant.” However, he errs in comparing NPR, etc, to Fox. I resent a single penny of my money going to the War Department. Perhaps, Madore would be willing to imagine every penny of his taxes going to kill people overseas, while I imagine all my contributions going toward people enjoying and learning about nature and culture. I’m even willing to overlook the disparity between the billions spent destroying and the mere millions spent airing “liberal” (?) views like those of the McLaughlin Group.

Leave aside the madness of every citizen earmarking his tax money, which would surely result in no money at all for things we don’t know we need until it’s too late (you know, like Public Health). Leave aside that conservatives resent every penny of tax, while liberals accept there is a cost to having a nation. The electromagnetic spectrum is a public property. We, the People, lease portions of that spectrum to private industry, which uses those resources to sell you things that are ultimately bad for you, including philosophies that pour money into the pockets of a relatively few people. Here’s where FOX enters the picture: “my” airwaves are used to poison the minds of citizens against the commonwealth and the notion that we all must compromise, contribute, and get along. Pull the funding on NPR, etc, but pull the plug on FOX at the same time. Stop drinking the kool-aid sold by a foreign dictator.