This is in response to Bob Oates’ Dec. 24 letter in which he stated that the governmental defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was justified because of its bias and its habit of reporting incomplete stories. He supported this judgment by describing his experience as a college radio newsman in the 1970s and by relating ideas described in an essay written in 2024 by an NPR senior business editor. There were no specific examples.

I agree with Mr. Oates that there is the problem of bias in most news broadcasts presented by all the media and in almost all letters to the editor seen in this paper — including the one authored
by Mr. Oates. I have become unsure that it is possible to discover lack of bias in any conclusion drawn by humans. Criticism of bias is logical, but do all of us who commit this crime deserve to be defunded?

What is most surprising to me is that Mr. Oates failed to mention one of the most biased-based decisions of the decade, that being President Trump’s stated effort to defund NPR, PBS and CPB for political reasons.

David Scotton
Cape Elizabeth