Chris Christie Defunds New Jersey's Version of NPR

...out here, it's called "NJN", but government media by any other name...

New Jersey governors have been talking for nearly two decades about severing ties with New Jersey Network, the state's public-TV and -radio system.

But Chris Christie has gone ahead and done it, saving Garden State taxpayers some $13 million a year -- forcing the question of whether government should even be in the broadcasting business.

"I wasn't elected to be programmer-in-chief," said Christie this week as he announced that Channel 13, New York's PBS station, will assume operation of NJN's TV channel. New York Public Radio will acquire four of the radio stations, Philadelphia's WHYY, the other five.

"That should have ended with the Soviet Union," he said of Trenton's dubious role in owning a news operation.

And this is the best push-back the Left can offer:

Predictably, Democrats and union leaders are raising hell, mostly because jobs will be lost in the merger.

One, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg of Bergen County, wants to know "how do we keep New Jersey residents informed about what's going on in their government" if the state doesn't operate NJN.

Well, it's mostly because the Democrats will lose a taxpayer-funded propaganda outlet. For certainly, Loretta can't really be wondering how New Jersey residents will "stay informed" about what chicanery their leadership is up to without NJN, can she? Certainly she's heard of this newfangled thing called "the Internet", right? Right?

I'm scared. But at least I know that I have Chris Christie to protect me from this type of mean-spirited idiocy. His determination to get out of the public-TV business - and save a boatload of cash in the doing - is a lesson that should not be lost upon the 2012 Republican wannabes...