Senators Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) introduced a bill today that would eliminate federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This bill joins six other bills taking aim at public broadcasting already introduced in the House. DeMint wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today to make his case, attacking – of all things – CEO salaries at public broadcasting outlets.

It’s especially hard to listen to the breathless outrage about executive pay at PBS and NPR from the same senators who had no qualms about defending the huge bonuses paid to bank executives after they were bailed out with taxpayer dollars. It wasn’t long ago that Sen. DeMint was bemoaning the “sad day in America when the government starts setting pay, no matter how outlandish,” and Coburn was questioning what business the government had “telling them how to run the banks?” With that kind of inconsistency, you can hardly wonder why four out of five Americans trust public broadcasting, and not even half of the country trusts Congress.

Speaking of the $700 billion bank bailout, the per capita cost of that to tax payers was $2,250. Compare that to the roughly $1.50 each of us pays per year in taxes to support public broadcasting. Those who use the national deficit to justify eliminating funding for public broadcasting rarely talk about that number. DeMint’s focus on CEOs is a distraction from the tens of thousands of local jobs that his legislation threatens. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting reports that federal funding for public radio and TV “helps to support more than 21,000 American jobs, which contribute more than $1 billion to the national economy.”

“This attack is déjà vu all over again. This bill isn’t about a budget deficit; it’s yet another political witch hunt aimed at silencing serious journalism and quality programming," said Craig Aaron, managing director of the Free Press Action Fund. “What Senators DeMint and Coburn forget is that the public — including millions of their own constituents and more than half of the GOP faithful, according to surveys — really like public broadcasting.”

It’s baffling that two senators who represent states with large rural populations want to kill the primary source of local news and current events for communities that the commercial media often overlook. In addition, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting pumps more than $140 million into rural economies each year and rural public media stations employ more than 7,000 people. These stations, who have been hit the hardest by the tough economic times, are going to be the first stations to close their doors if DeMint and Coburn have their way.

Sens. DeMint and Coburn would rather ignore the many polls of American taxpayers who say by an overwhelming majority that public funding for public media is “good or excellent value.” In typical fashion, a few partisan extremists in Congress are trying to score political points with reckless disregard for what the American people really want.

You can tell your Senator to stand up against these attacks here. 

Follow Josh Stearns on Twitter: @jcstearns