Tomorrow, the House of Representatives is poised to pass a federal budget that zeroes out any support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, slashing funding for NPR, PBS, and dozens of local stations across the country. A handful of bills are also working their way through Congress that would do the same. The tale is so riveting, the impact so monumental, that we could call this NPR's "Driveway Moment".
Anyone who cares about or relies upon public broadcasting should be glued to this story like a Terry Gross interview with Elvis Presley found alive. If you can't imagine your daily commute without Morning Edition, or the nights you can flip TV channels from some vapid reality show to truly thought-provoking reporting on PBS, then you should be making some noise. If you remember learning to count from Sesame Street, you should be ready to howl like the Count if the show gets killed.
Already, a million people have signed petitions against defunding public media, and the calls for support are increasing every hour, including from other members of Congress. Today, Reps. Ed Markey (D-Ma.), Earl Blumenauer (d-Ore.) and Nita Lowey (D-NY) announced an amendment that would restore the funding that was cut out of the budget initially.
I'm not trying to scare you with a "Glenn Beck doomsday chalkboard" by predicting complete and utter disaster. But I will tell you that the threats to our public broadcasting system are serious and real. And while our radio dials won't suddenly go to static, if funding is slashed for public media, we'll see (and hear) a sad and startling, and likely very rapid, decline in quality reporting and local programming.
Here's what you should know:
Even with its dwindling federal budget, public media has managed to gain the trust and respect of the majority of Americans, especially at a time when corporate media is fascinated with Snooki's hairdo resembling a showdog, and the Comcast-NBC merger ushers in a new era of mega-media consolidation. We should be pushing for more funding for public media, not fighting against less.
Around the world, governments are clamping down and threatening the core information infrastructures in their nations, shutting down Internet service, and attacking and deporting journalists. The threats facing our public broadcasters are far less visible and far less violent, but the impact may be the same.
It's time for members of Congress to stop playing politics with public media, and let some of the best journalists and media makers in the nation do their job. We need them now more than ever.
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There is value in the cultural programming which I have found over the years to be particularly offensive and irritating to my conservative friends. NPR is still an oasis on the radio dial where one can get away from the commercialized noise chamber of morning zoo antics and rightwing hate fomenters. Considering the other well financed options on the radio, NPR needs all the help they can get. Americans are becoming culturally ignorant. It is not all about the Super bowl and pop culture. I don’t mind the government paying a little to give us some exposure foreign news via the BBC and to cultural and arts programming.
Neither of which should be defunded their pittance of taxpayer money (their entire annual funding from congress amounts to the cost of 6 hours of war in Afghanistan based upon a figure I read that the cost of the war was a Billion dollars a day. That figure might include Iraq, not sure but the amount is accurate).
NPR and PBS need all the help they can get. Who under the age of 45-48 DIDN'T grow up with Sesame Street? (And then move on to The Electric Company in the 70's?)
Or NPR could lower programing costs by 20% to offset this issue.