from the failing-upward dept

Trump’s DHS Pick, Kristi Noem, Decides To Undermine Public Safety By Cutting Funding For Public Broadcasting

Hitch yourself to a wagon and see what you get. Area dog-killer/current governor/possible DHS head Kristi Noem boarded the Trump Train when it first passed through town nearly a decade ago. Since then, she’s won the loyalty of a bunch of fascist-adjacent dipshits who don’t care how much they vote against their own interests, as long as it hurts people they don’t like. You know: immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, whatever their definition of a “lib” is, renewable energy proponents, or whatever.

Kristi Noem made it clear she was willing to step on the backs of her own constituents to ensure her rise within the Republican party by vehemently arguing against stay-at-home orders (during one of the most massive COVID outbreaks in the nation), shutting down voter-approved marijuana legalization, and — in the midst of a flood that devastated several small communities — spending money scrambling National Guard units to the Texas border rather than to nearby overflowing bodies of water.

Now, there’s this: the undermining of local and national safety by yanking funding for public broadcasting. Most people may assume it’s nothing but tasteful sweaters, smoothly modulated moderators, and the occasional Brit drama relying on public broadcasting funds.

But that’s only part of it. South Dakota Searchlight — an independent news source that never stops holding the state government’s feet to the fire — talked to people that are also affected when money for public broadcasting suddenly goes missing. Journalist Brad Johnson tracked down those who are going be hurting because potential DHS boss Kristi Noem seems to believe the public shouldn’t fund public broadcasting, despite there being no tax break in it for them even if they align with Noem’s antipathy.

It seems absurd that Gov. Kristi Noem would harm the U.S. Department of Homeland Security just before she is expected to be confirmed as its leader.

But that is what she is doing with her ill-advised plan to destroy South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

Noem launched her surprise attack on SDPB in her Dec. 3 budget address, proposing to cut slightly more than $3.6 million of its $5.6 million in state funding.

The problem with this math is that it takes $4.8 million a year just to cover the basics of public broadcasting, including whatever’s needed to keep its infrastructure up and running. Even if you may not agree with what’s being broadcast on the airwaves, it seems extremely ignorant to cut funding that affects all of the government ancillaries that depend on the state’s broadcast towers.

And yet, here we are, watching a bunch of government infrastructure being hamstrung by a performative Trumpist who’s about to bring this same level of foresight and expertise to the Department of Homeland Security.

There’s going to be a cascade of failure if there’s not enough money to keep these towers fully operational, as SDPB’s direction of engineering, SeVern Ashes told Brad Johnson:

The network is critical “to all emergency communication from the SD Division of Criminal Investigation on down to county-level emergency management systems such as ambulance, fire and local police departments such as Sioux Falls and Rapid City,” Ashes said.

[…]

One federal Homeland Security agency using the tower network for communications is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ashes said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S Forest Service and Federal Aviation Administration also use the system, as does the Civil Air Patrol.

There are a half-dozen agencies that might be adversely affected by underfunding, including one Noem may soon oversee: ICE. And they’re not the only ones relying on SDPB towers. Law enforcement uses the towers to issue missing person alerts, and relay weather and traffic information. Firefighters use the same towers for communications, as do certain ambulance systems. SDPB’s towers provide communication coverage to 98% of the state.

It’s clear these towers are necessary to South Dakotans. But because Noem only sees them as relay stations for anti-conservative programming, she’s decided they can make do with half the budget for the next year. And it’s hard to believe she isn’t aware of the side benefits of SDPB’s broadcasting towers. After all, she heads the state and has all the access she needs to understand the potential collateral damage of slashing funding. But she just doesn’t care. The only point of this action is to score points with people as short-sighted, vindictive, and thoroughly wrong as she is. Unfortunately for the rest of the nation, she’s no longer just South Dakota’s problem — not if Trump gets his way.