Stossel, co-anchor of ABC News' "20/20," writes in his recent syndicated column that "public broadcasting is a classic example of welfare for the well-off. We PBS viewers are 44 percent more likely than other Americans to make more than $150,000 a year.

"I enjoy PBS, but it hardly seems fair that the government demands you buy it for me."

When PBS was launched in the 1960s, most Americans had only the Big Three networks to choose from, so PBS provided more variety than TV offerings. But now there are hundreds of channels and if there's a demand for what PBS might offer, "the market will provide it," said Stossel.

He points out that PBS receives only 15 percent of its funds from the federal government, and if PBS and National Public Radio lost all their federal money, they wouldn't disappear.

Stossel would like to see the federal dollars taken out of PBS's pocketbook.

In June, a GOP-controlled House subcommittee voted to slash federal funding for public television and radio. But after a furious lobbying campaign by public broadcasting supporters, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted on July 14 to restore the $111 million cut from CPB's budget.

Said Stossel: "When anyone suggests cutting the PBS budget, people say, 'They’re trying to kill "Sesame Street.' But 'Sesame Street' is big business and would survive in any environment."

As for the claim that only PBS can do "honest" news broadcasts and documentaries because it doesn't depend on advertising dollars, Stossel maintained: "Twenty-five years ago, Ralph Nader proclaimed that consumer reporting would never appear on commercial TV. It would only thrive on public TV, he said, because commercial stations would defer to advertisers.

"Today, PBS carries almost no consumer reporting, probably because the bureaucrats who run it are too nervous about offending anyone. By contrast, there is plenty of consumer reporting on commercial TV.

"The free market serves its customers, and in the TV business, the customers are viewers. PBS, on the other hand, is broadcasting by bureaucracy. This is not a good thing."

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