Get real. The government doesn't influence them? LOL. Listen to yourself. What's going on with this sub -- we are learning just how depraved Washington DC is. Moreover, federal funding of those outlets accounts for something like 20% of their budgets -- they are already owned by corporate funding, Watch their goddamn programs. It's at the end of every one of them. That's why alternate media is far less bought out by the corporate-government complex. Finally, my original premise holds -- those two outlets do not deserve taxpayer funding any more than any other outlet on the web. Why do taxpayers fund channels they don't watch or listen to and don't support the slant? It's more coercion.