Arizona governor-elect Kari Lake has said that she would “look into” removing funding from the publicly-funded television station.
Lake was scheduled to have an interview with Arizona PBS on Wednesday, which was planned in collaboration with Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission. The original plan was to be a debate, however Democrat Katie Hobbs declined.
It was recently made known that the station had booked an additional interview with Hobbs on Tuesday, which will not be in conjunction with the CEC. Since the CEC was displeased, they decided to pull their participation on Wednesday's Lake event and announced that it would be moved until a later date.
The commission stated that it was “surprised” and called the decision made by Arizona PBS “disappointing.” The government group stated that the new show with Lake will be on an alternative “venue” and “partner.”
Arizona PBS is technically a department of Arizona State University, and they earn millions through subscriptions and memberships. However, they also receive money from the university, which translates to public money, as stated in their fiscal year 2021 statement. It's not clear what the network will do to remove funding that is not allocated to the organization, however it will most likely require a decision from the state legislature as well from members of the state Board of Regents.
When Lake was asked if she'd be willing to campaign to get elected governor (which is at the 2 minute time mark of the video):
“Well seeing as how they appear to be an arm of the Democrat Party, I think we need to look at it. This is not bipartisan. This is biased. This is absolutely biased,” Lake replied.
“Katie Hobbs and her refusal to appear on the debate stage with me pretty much should’ve shut down her ability to even make it on the air at this station. But yet, they are so obviously in the tank for her that they’re giving her an opportunity to appear on this stage. That’s wrong. And we should look at that, we really should,” she continued.
