House restores funding for NPR, PBS and local public stations

[whistle]

...just got this e-mail this afternoon from a DU friend in PA:

<snip>

Dear MoveOn member,

In an unexpected move yesterday afternoon, the House of Representatives approved a measure to restore $100 million of funding for NPR, PBS and local public stations.(1) Republican leaders were proposing to slash $200 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but you helped stop them.

Everyone said it was impossible to reverse any of the House cuts with Republicans in control. Yesterday's Washington Post described the divide between Democrats and Republicans like this:


"n Capitol Hill, it's hard to find a Republican with anything nice to say about National Public Radio or the Public Broadcasting Service. Instead, they denounce them as liberal and elitist, when they bother to talk about them at all."2

Public broadcasting shouldn't divide Republicans and Democrats. More Americans trust NPR and PBS for balanced news and children's programming than any commercial network.3 Yet many Republicans have been intent on either gagging or starving public broadcasting.

So why did 87 Republicans break with the majority of their party and vote to restore the funding? In large part, because over 1 million of you signed the petition calling on Congress to reverse course. And over 40,000 of you made phone calls to your elected representatives. There was a surge of public outrage that couldn't be ignored. This victory was possible because we were joined by Free Press, Common Cause and strong allies in the House—Representatives Markey, Obey, Lowey, Dingell, Hinchey, Watson, Schakowsky, Blumenauer, Eshoo, Slaughter, and Leach, a brave Republican.

Despite this incredible progress, the House Republicans did manage to cut over $100 million, including funding for children's programming like "Sesame Street." We'll take our fight to the Senate when it considers the budget later this summer. But yesterday's vote makes it much more likely we can restore every last cent for NPR and PBS by acting together.

Yesterday also brought darker news in the fight for public broadcasting. The Republican-dominated board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) hired a former Republican National Committee chair as the next president, injecting partisanship into the very organization designed to shield public broadcasting from political meddling.4 This is only the latest effort by White House ally and CPB board chair Kenneth Tomlinson to remake public broadcasting as a partisan mouthpiece. To save NPR and PBS, we'll need to take on Tomlinson, but today we showed that the public can and will defend public broadcasting from partisan attack.

For now, we have a lot to be thankful for. Our kids can keep learning from PBS' children's programming. We can keep enjoying public broadcasting's in-depth, trustworthy news and cultural offerings. Most of all, we can be thankful for the ability of ordinary people to band together and do extraordinary things.

Thank you, for all you do,

–Noah, Joan, Marika, Wes and the MoveOn.org Team
Friday, June 24th, 2005

P.S. Your Congressman, Rep. Holden, voted the right way on NPR and PBS funding.5 You can call to thank him at 202-225-5546.

Please let us know if you call at:

http://www.moveon.org/call?tg=FHPA_17&cp_id=42&id=5703-4215366-zTIgOdYUuY2Ht2mUG2Gc3A

Sources:
1. "House votes to keep most PBS funding intact," USA Today, June 23, 2005
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-06-23-pbs-funding_x.htm

2. "Opponents On Different Wavelengths," Washington Post, June 23, 2005
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062202294.html

3. "CPB's 'Secrets and Lies': Why the CPB Board Hid its Polls Revealing Broad Public Support for PBS and NPR," Center for Digital Democracy, April 27, 2005
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=746

4. "Public Broadcasting Chief Is Named, Raising Concerns," New York Times, June 24, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/politics/24broadcast.html

5. Roll Call Vote in House of Representatives (An "aye" vote is the right vote.)
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll305.xml

[KharmaTrain]

1. The Local Money Is Very Important

I'm not 100% on the way CPB funds. Some of the arguments opponents to CPB funding have a lot of merit now. Between the large number of television outlets now available and the way PBS has become corporate, many PBS and some NPR stations have become very wealthy indeed. Also shows like Sesame Street and Clifford make big money off the licensing...the PBS showings are almost free commercials for them now.

That said, there is one side of the Public spectrum that has been spared by this money being kept at the existing level...small and medium size public stations. These are the small FM or TV station at your Junior College or run by a local non-profit. Losing any funding is devestating to these operations that don't have the big endowments or large corporate interests a large PBS TV station in New York or LA does.

Hopefully this enables many public stations that air Democracy Now and other alternative news and information programs to remain healthy.

I'd strongly suggest to support your local college or public station...they're a tremendous resource we should mobilize in our attempts to restore our voice to the airwaves.

Cheers!

[CatholicEdHead]

2. Double edged sword

They got the money, but the right wing got more control for 15% of the budget. WPR host Dave Berkman talks about this in a very good 45min radio show.

http://clipcast.wpr.org:8080/ramgen/wpr/bme/bme050623l.rm

"4:00 PM

Ben Merens - 06/23L

Yesterday Ben Merens spoke with a supporter and with a critic of public radio and television. Today, after four, a third view: Ben’s guest supports public broadcasting, but says it would be better off without federal funding, and the headaches that come along with it.

Guest: Dave Berkman, retired professor of Mass Communications at UW-Milwaukee. Media columnist for The Shepherd Express. Host, Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Media Talk�."