The End of Public Broadcasting

Yesterday, the first steps were taken to eliminate all federal support of the Corporation for Public Brodcasting, which gives significant support to many public radio and television stations across the country.

A House subcommittee voted yesterday to sharply reduce the federal government's financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children's educational programs as "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," "Arthur" and "Postcards From Buster."

In addition, the subcommittee acted to eliminate within two years all federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- which passes federal funds to public broadcasters -- starting with a 25 percent reduction in CPB's budget for next year, from $400 million to $300 million.

The primary perception is one of a political agenda:

Expressing alarm, public broadcasters and their supporters in Congress interpreted the move as an escalation of a Republican-led campaign against a perceived liberal bias in their programming. That effort was initiated by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's own chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson.

"Americans overwhelmingly see public broadcasting as an unbiased information source," Rep. David Obey (Wis.), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said in a statement. "Perhaps that's what the GOP finds so offensive about it. Republican leaders are trying to bring every facet of the federal government under their control. . . . Now they are trying to put their ideological stamp on public broadcasting."

It's not just that they want to put their ideological stamp on everything, it's that they hate that there is an alternative ideology to theirs. They don't want to cover PBS and NPR stations with their viewpoint of the world; they want to elminate the PBS and NPR viewpoint entirely. So, despite the fact that PBS provides more honest discussion from both sides of the issue than any other broadcaster, the problem is that they provide two sides at all. This is objective journalism re-branded as "liberal bias."

PBS, in particular, drew harsh criticism in December from the Bush administration for a "Postcards From Buster" episode in which Buster, an animated rabbit, "visited" two families in Vermont headed by lesbians. And programming on both PBS and NPR has come under fire in recent months from Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the CPB, who has pushed for greater "balance" on the public airwaves.

A spokeswoman for NPR, Andi Sporkin, directly blamed Tomlinson for yesterday's action, saying, "We've never been sure of Mr. Tomlinson's intent but, with this news, we might be seeing his effect."
...
John Lawson, the president of the Association of Public Television Stations, a Washington-based group that lobbies for public broadcasters, called the subcommittee's action "at least malicious wounding, if not outright attempted murder, of public broadcasting in America." He added, "This action could deprive tens of millions of American children of commercial-free educational programming."

Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), the subcommittee's chairman, said the cuts had nothing to do with dissatisfaction over public radio or TV programs. "It's pretty simple," he said in an interview. "The thinking was, there's not enough money for everything. There are 'must-do,' 'need-to-do' and 'nice-to-do' programs that we have to pay for. [Public broadcasting] is somewhere between a 'need-to-do' and a 'nice-to-do.' "

Nice to do.

Sorry Cookie Monster, it looks like your new diet doesn't really matter. The greater forces have deemed you a benefactor of the social-welfare program of public broadcasting, and at the same time part of the Liberal Elite, and your time has come.

Either that, or you're just too damn expensive: gotta cut those costs!

[Annual cost of all sixteen U.N. peacekeeping missions currently underway : $3,870,000,000

Monthly cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq : $4,100,000,000

Annual budget of CPB: $400 million.

Amount of years CPB could be funded instead of one month of war in Iraq: 10.25]

This is a sham, and a shame.

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There is much work to do on the GOP's method of destruction here, which I think is vital. It goes with a hidden tenet of the Neoconservative mantra from the late 80's- break everything so bad that fixing it is impossible, then fill the vaccuum with your own ideological goals. The method they're using in many places is bankrupcy [and they've made it more difficult to get bankrupcy protections for average Americans, all part of the agenda]. Bankrupt CPR and it can't be rebuilt the same way. Bankrupt the country...

Anybody find any work dealing with this line of thought?