Plenty of private companies get public funding and say and do whatever they want. We already have PBS and NPR, we should just increase their budgets.

Agree with this, too. The very reason why it used to work was because of the notion and protection of "the free press." Now that competition in journalism is so fierce, surprisingly, the quality has gone down, not up, as one might expect. Some may disagree with this, but it's the way I see it. When I read an article from a journalist, it's either very shallow, missing answers to some very obvious questions, or it's heavily opinionated with regard to politics. Or all three! You may or may not agree, but that's my experience and opinion thus far.