Oklahoma Governor Defunds State PBS Station, Citing ‘Over-Sexualization of Our Children’

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks after signing into law a prolife bill in Oklahoma City, Okla., on April 12, 2022. Sue Ogrocki/AP Photo

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is defending his decision to cut funding for the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA), pointing to the “problematic” sexual content broadcasted that targeted children.

Last week, Stitt, a Republican, vetoed a bill that sought to extend funding for OETA—the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member station for Oklahoma—through 2026.

“OETA, to us, is an outdated system. You know, the big, big question is why are we spending taxpayer dollars to prop up or compete with the private sector and run television stations?” Stitt said in an interview with Fox News. “And then when you go through all of the programming that’s happening and the indoctrination and over-sexualization of our children, it’s just really problematic, and it doesn’t line up with Oklahoma values.”

OETA broadcasted a segment called “Let’s Learn” that involved reading a children’s book that talks about drag queens. A “PBS Newshour” feature talked about parents’ support for various gender treatments for minors including puberty blockers, and a program on PBS Kids had a same-sex wedding while another included LGBT characters.

The station would essentially have to cease operations this year unless the Oklahoma Legislature overrides the veto. The governor pointed out that such programs aren’t particularly educational.

“When you think about educating kids, let’s teach them to read and their numbers and counting and letters and those kind of things,” Stitt said. “I mean, some of the programming that we’re seeing ... it just doesn’t need to be on public television.”

The governor argued that the money spent on OETA could be better spent elsewhere. Stitt also pointed out that the entertainment environment at present is much different than in the past.

“There’s so much television, there’s so much media,” he said. “Maybe in 1957, you could have made an argument that you needed a public television station. That’s totally outdated at this point.”

Defunding PBS

In a May 4 statement, nonprofit Citizens Defending Freedom (CDF) called on the federal government to defund PBS due to its promotion of LGBT and critical race theory (CRT) ideologies to children. Taxpayer funding accounts for 15 percent of the total funding at PBS.

The defunding call came after CDF found that PBS released an LGBT toolkit aimed at school children and teachers. The student curriculum is aimed at integrating “LGBTQ+ history and narratives into US History and English classrooms.”

A video titled “All Oppression Is Connected” insists that there’s a common enemy that oppresses women and gays.

“If you line up all the people who are against the black people, and line up all the people who are against the gay people, and line up all the people who are against poor women or against abortion, you put all in the same corner, chances are they’re related to each other, they know each other, and so therefore, it’s the same enemy,” Staceyann Chin, an LGBT activist, says in the video.

Another video talks about “combating homophobia/transphobia” while a second video talks about the inclusion of “non-binary” people in sports.

“Their ‘LGBTQ+Identity Kit' is clearly a partisan effort to brainwash teachers and students, sowing seeds of division and hatred in an environment that should seek to protect our children, not use them as political pawns,” said CDF Chief Communications Officer Kristen Huber.

“We’re calling on the federal government to immediately strip PBS of its funding. American taxpayers should not be forced to fund questionable curriculum for our children.”

PBS Funding

The Radio Television Digital News Association is urging state lawmakers to override Stitt’s veto.

OETA has proven that it can make up for any cutback in state funding, according to the public policy analysis group Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

Between 2009 and 2017, the entity faced cuts of 40 percent or more. However, OETA’s total funding remained constant between 2013 and 2017 as it made up for the loss from other sources.

Moreover, PBS only receives direct state funding from 36 of the 50 states. PBS already has operations in states where it doesn’t receive direct state subsidies.

“Oklahoma state government also spends more lavishly on PBS subsidies than many of its counterparts across the country, including states controlled by Democrats,” it said.

In the 2023 budget year, Oklahoma’s state funding for OETA is said to be 72 cents per capita. That’s higher than the funding provided to PBS in 10 other states.

OETA officials didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.