FFRF Action Fund’s “Theocrat of the Week” is a U.S. representative who argues that NPR and PBS should be defunded because the public broadcasters “hate our Lord.”
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, representing Tennessee’s 2nd District, appeared last weekend on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, produced by the Family Research Council, a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group headed by Perkins.
Burchett spoke with Perkins about recent congressional hearings he participated in targeting NPR and PBS, seeking to slash their federal funding in accord with the Christian nationalist-based Project 2025. Burchett argued that NPR and PBS must be defunded because “they literally hate this country. … They hate our patriotism. They hate our Lord. And they don’t hide it.” Burchett offered no evidence to support his claims.
NPR and PBS CEOs appeared last week in front of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, launched as a companion to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The hearing was titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the heads of NPR and PBS Accountable” and addressed the broadcasters’ alleged promotion of “leftist propaganda” using public funds.
Burchett declared that since Trump was re-elected, “We need to honor his [wishes]—the wishes of this country” and defund public broadcasting, as outlined in Project 2025’s playbook. He even admitted to nearly making a telling Freudian slip, saying that he almost said “this congregation” instead of “this country.”
“God gave us an incredible gift in this country,” Burchett said at the end of his segment with Perkins. “I don’t want Donald Trump teaching my daughter Sunday School class, but dadgum, I love him. I want him as my president. And he’s right. Let’s defund this stuff right now.”
Project 2025 aims to end NPR and PBS’ status as “noncommercial education stations,” which would remove their current channel numbers at the coveted low end of the radio spectrum, the 88 to 92 FM frequencies. This would open up prime channel numbers for religious programming that already claims 42 percent of the airwaves that the Federal Communications Commission reserves for noncommercial broadcasting. Inevitably, religious evangelism and Christian nationalist propaganda would dominate U.S. airwaves.
If Project 2025 succeeds in dismantling federal funds for NPR and PBS, the future of all public media will be threatened, especially for the local stations nationwide that entirely rely on its content. A strong democracy depends on a strong public media system, which fills information needs not met by commercial media. Public media delivers news to rural regions that do not have a commercial newsroom, covers topics like public affairs and international news that are not attractive to advertisers or subscribers, and reports on communities that mainstream news organizations have long ignored. Weakening public media will only lead to a less informed American public.
These efforts would replace journalistic news reporting and features with Christian nationalist broadcasting, which is likely the ultimate goal. The “Seven Mountain Mandate” calls on Christians to seize power in seven spheres: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business and government. Project 2025 and the second Trump administration perfectly align with these goals.
By claiming that public media “[hates] our Lord,” Burchett ignorantly implies that all Americans share the same “Lord” while also highlighting the religious rationale behind Project 2025’s plan to dismantle public broadcasting. His efforts to attack an informed citizenry in the name of his “lord” have certainly earned him FFRF Action Fund’s “Theocrat” designation.
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.