We Should All Demand Reparations as PBS Smears All Republicans in 'White With Fear'

Tim Graham on Mar 27, 2026

One of the most preposterous claims from liberals is that somehow, conservatives uniquely try to win elections by using "fear," "hate" and "division," especially on race and religion. Democrats never use any divisive, negative tactics when trying to motivate voters. It's like they've never heard Chuck Schumer saying a Republican voter-ID bill is "Jim Crow 2.0."

On March 24, PBS stations debuted a long negative campaign commercial disguised as a documentary titled "White With Fear," on how "America's conservative political machine uses racial fault lines to gain power." The 85-minute film starts with Nixon's campaigns, then goes on a tear against Fox News, Islamophobia after 9/11, birtherism against Obama, the Tea Party and then into the Trump era.

In a statement, the propagandist Andrew Goldberg oozed: "I'm grateful to PBS for giving 'White with Fear' such a prestigious platform with an extensive reach of loyal viewers. It's the ideal home for the film -- timely, relevant, and deeply connected to where our country stands today."

This "prestigious platform" is always willing to be a source of vitriolic anti-conservative content. Conservatives are just lucky we're not paying for this garbage any more -- until Democrats get back in control.

The Los Angeles Times summarized the theme: "Goldberg's film argues that the right, using the language of white supremacy and relying on distortions, lies and misinformation campaigns against Black people, then Muslims and immigrants, have turned the GOP into a racially driven, hate-filled party of grievances."

Does that sound like an objective film? In an interview with that paper, Goldberg proclaimed: "I'm a journalist, not an activist. I want to impart the truth, as opposed to changing people's minds." He shouldn't be charging others with "misinformation."

One of the star "experts" in this spectacle is CNN's Brian Stelter, especially in the vicious attacks on Fox News as a hub of conservative racism. In the promotional trailer, Stelter claimed, "there is now a white fear industrial complex." In another clip, Stelter said: "When I interviewed insiders at Fox, the term 'brown menace' came up over and over again. They are programming to stoke fear of 'the Other,' usually a brown-skinned person who is frightening to the white Christian audience." Who are these "insiders"? Stelter never has to say.

One might have been ex-Fox reporter Carl Cameron, who's also in the film to denounce the late Fox News boss Roger Ailes as a "conservative hack hit man." It's not so convincing, coming in a liberal hack hit man's film.

It also fits PBS that there are MSNBC regulars in the film, like Eddie Glaude, Tim Miller and Stuart Stevens. They love former Republicans who've "seen the light." I'm completely befuddled by Stevens talking about the Jan. 6 rioters: "They did what the 9/11 terrorists failed to do ... and the Republican Party had a chance to hold Donald Trump accountable and they blinked."

Another convert, former Breitbart writer Katie McHugh, inspired unintentional laughter when she announced "Breitbart -- in my view -- de facto advertising arm of the Trump campaign."

They were certainly close allies -- but what about Obama and the entire "mainstream media"? No "de facto advertising arms"?

The biggest problem in this long screed is the assumption that anyone who's voted for Republicans in the PBS era is a racist, or at best, a slack-jawed pawn of racists. No one voted for Republicans for more liberty, for a strong defense, for border control or against abortion. Idealism is annihilated.

This is why taxpayer money for PBS programming has always been unjust -- taking taxpayer money from Republicans to smash them in their "racist" faces. We should all demand reparations.

========

Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.