GINGRICH . . . SCROOGING PUBLIC TV

House Speaker-electNewt Gingrichwants to end federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the bulk of whose $275 budget goes to bankroll public TV. At ease last night on (privately-funded) National Empowerment Television, a conservative cable channel, the Georgia Republican said he's set the GOP majority's sights on phasing out CPB, "which has been eating taxpayers' money." Republicans have long argued that public TV has a liberal bias. Meanwhile, Gingrich urged the right-leaning channel's viewers to send in donations "to help sustain their talk shows and their network and keep alive their ideas as the alternative to the elite."