Drift Reality > Washington, DC > The Death of Public Broadcasting

On June 9th, a House subcommittee voted to cut the federal government's financial support for public broadcasting from $400 million to $300 million in 2006, as precursor to the eventual elimination of all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private non-profit corporation that passes federal funds to public broadcasters.

CPB was created in 1967 when President Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. This act was based on a number of assertions, foremost that, "it is in the public interest to encourage the growth and development of public radio and television broadcasting, including the use of such media for instructional, educational, and cultural purposes." To this end, CPB started the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which was responsible for shows like "Sesame Street" and "Reading Rainbow." Additionally, CPB provided funding for member stations of National Public Radio.

With federal funding cut from their budgets, PBS may have to look elsewhere for financial support for programming like "Sesame Street" and "Reading Rainbow," and it seems plausible that the "elsewhere" will take the form of corporate sponsorship.

I can already see how this will play out:

Kermit the Frog is sitting on a stoop, eating a Big Mac while humming Burger King jingle. Enter Snuffalufagus.

Snuffalufagus: I'm sad.

Kermit: Why are you so sad Snuffy?

Snuffalufagus: I don't know. Nobody likes me.

Kermit: Ahh, Snuffy, I know what will cheer you up?

Snuffalufagus: What? Do you want to sing the alphabet song?

Kermit: Of course! But first have a sip of this SoBe Energy drink, made with guarana extract!

Just pathetic. What is more pathetic is the political struggle that is at the root of the budget cuts.

CPB has eight board members who serve six-year terms. They are selected by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Under the Bush administration, the board has become increasingly republican dominated and there have been some complaints from PBS and NPR that CPB has begun pushing a conservative agenda. Concurrently, many republican interests have been attacking public broadcasters for a perceived liberal bias in their programming. Consequently, many public broadcasters have interpreted the phasing-out of CPB's federal budget as partisan retribution for supporting a liberal agenda.
The actual statistics seem to render the partisan conflict irrelevant.

In a recent survey, CPB commissioned two polling firms, one Republican and one Democrat, to gather information about NPR. The results showed that fewer than 15 percent of Americans said that NPR coverage of the war or the Bush administration is slanted, while 80 percent of Americans said they had an overall favorable impression of NPR. Furthermore, NPR's listeners identified themselves as one-third conservative, one-third liberal, and one-third independent, defying the conservative argument that the majority of listeners are liberals.

Statistics don't lie: public broadcasting is the closest thing to an unbiased source of information that we have in this country. By phasing out CPB's budget and financial support for public broadcasting, this administration is sending out a message that unbiased information is not acceptable.

What is even more unacceptable is the fact that the CPB appropriation is practically negligible, when held in comparison to other parts of our federal budget.

Consider this: In 2004 the Bush administration requested 420.7 billion for the military in the fiscal year 2005, an increase of 7.9 percent. To put things in perspective, the 2004 budget request included a $4.7 billion budget for 24 F/A-22 fighters for the Air Force. This equals out to about $200 million per F/A -22-fighter jet.

In other words, our government has decided that having one F/A - 22 fighter jets is more important than having "Sesame Street" and "Reading Rainbow" for millions of children. If you put out a poll for the American people and asked them, "What is more important? Sesame Street or 1 F/A 22 fighter jet?" I wonder what most people would say?

I think that even the most dogmatic gun-wielding Christian-right homophobic racist republican would have to think twice about this.

If the public broadcasting budget cut pisses you off anywhere near as much as it pisses me off, please visit the MoveOn petition and make your voice heard.