GO WOKE GO BROKE: PBS Outlet Seeking Donations After Promoting Witches & LGBTQ Activists Over Christians

Local PBS Outlet Seeks funding from the Conservative Community they Betrayed.

Image Credit: WCTE / Facebook & Canva

Submitted by Connor B. [Forge and Anvil] –

Earlier this month The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced that it would be shutting down operations after President Trump and Republicans in congress canceled the funding for the nonprofit as part of the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The CPB used this funding to support public radio and TV stations around the country including six PBS stations in Tennessee. 

One of these stations, WCTE, is based in the overwhelmingly conservative Putnam County. As a result of the funding cuts, the station posted on social media asking members of the community to help support them financially.

However, due to recent controversies, locals of middle Tennessee are questioning whether WCTE deserves to be funded at all.

On their website WCTE states that they use “public media to inspire lifelong learning and to give voice to Central Tennessee.”

Yet when local LGBTQ+ Activists and self-identified witches caused an uproar over a church-lead Christmas parade, WCTE did not give a voice to the Christian conservatives organizing the parade.

Instead, they publicly announced that they would not air the parade at all.

Although the lack of coverage was disappointing to locals of Putnam county, the publicly funded station didn’t stop there.

As reported by the Pamphleteer, the city of Cookeville caved to the pressure and eventually assumed control over the Christmas Parade and even appointed several of the self-identified witches and LGBTQ+ activists to the planning board.

WCTE then declared it would once again provide coverage of the parade after it was in the hands of left wing radicals. To the 72% of  Putnam county who vote conservative and hold traditional values it would appear that WCTE does not in fact “give voice to Central Tennessee” unless you happen to be among the minority who oppose those values.

The Christmas parade ultimately never happened as the city of Cookeville canceled the parade. According to the city, the reason for the cancellation was due to bad weather.

However, many believe the so-called “inclusive” parade was ultimately canceled due to conservative outrage over the city’s mishandling of the event. Regardless of outcomes, it appears WCTE’s public refusal to air the Christian lead parade followed by its public support of the leftwing parade helped fan the flames of the parade’s fallout.

Although federal funding has been cut from WCTE’s annual income, the station has been on the receiving end of state and local government funding. One example comes from 2021 when the six Tennessee PBS outlets were awarded 1 million dollars from the Tennessee Department of Education.

In a piece written for the Standing for Freedom Center, former Trump staffer and Executive Director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, William Wolfe, highlighted just some of the programming produced by the CPB: 

“By 2025, PBS and NPR were nothing more than a non-stop slop bucket of Cultural Marxism, overflowing into your living room or front seat, where “diversity” meant erasing biblical norms and “inclusion” excludes anyone clinging to the Cross, the Constitution, and common sense.

Take, for instance, PBS’s children’s lineup — shows like Arthur featuring same-sex weddings or Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood pushing “anti-racist” indoctrination, all while taxpayer dollars fund the grooming. NPR’s no better, with endless segments on “racial injustice” over urban crime waves, fawning interviews with trans activists, and coverage that frames border security as xenophobia while ignoring the invasion’s chaos. They’ve aired puff pieces on drag queen story hours, downplayed Antifa riots as “mostly peaceful,” and amplified voices calling America a “systemically racist” empire built on stolen land. It’s ludicrous anti-white, anti-Christian drivel masquerading as journalism, where normal Americans are villains and every minority grievance is gospel.”

To conservatives in Putnam county it would seem WCTE uses their taxpayer funded platform to undermine the values of the community they are based in.

As 2026 once again brings state and local elections our way, it seems Tennessee officials face a choice to follow president Trump’s lead and cut the funding of these stations at the state and local level or risk losing at the polls.