Posted on 02/19/2005 7:33:50 AM PST by tsomer
Subject: Save public broadcasting
On NPR's Morning Edition, Nina Totenberg said that if the Supreme Court supports Congress, it will, in effect, be the end of the National Public Radio (NPR), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) & the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). PBS, NPR and the arts are facing major cutbacks in funding.
In spite of the efforts of each station to reduce spending costs and streamline their services, some government officials believe that the funding currently going to these programs is too large a portion of funding for something which is seen as not worthwhile.
This is message is for anyone who thinks NPR/PBS is a worthwhile expenditure of $1.12/year of their taxes. The only way that our representatives can be aware of the base of support for PBS and funding for these types of programs is by making our voices heard.
Please add your name to this list and forward it to friends who believe in what this stands for. This list will be forwarded to the President and the Vice President of the United States. This petition is being passed around the Internet. Please add your name to it so that funding can be maintained for NPR, PBS, & the NEA.
HOW TO SIGN & FORWARD: IT'S EASY: Please keep this petition rolling. Do not reply to me. Please sign and forward to others ... It won't matter if many people receive the same list as the names are being managed. This is for anyone who thinks NPR/PBS is a worthwhile expenditure of $1.12/year of their taxes. A petition follows.
Thank you!
Judith Ruderman
Vice Provost for Academic and Administrative Services 220 Allen, Box 90005, Duke University
(Excerpt) Read more at by2fd.bay2.hotmail.msn.com ...
"On NPR's Morning Edition, Nina Totenberg said that if the Supreme Court supports Congress, it will, in effect, be the end of the National Public Radio (NPR)"
Maybe just the end of Nina Totenberg? One can only dream.
I'll concur it was founded on noble intentions. But circumstances are different now. And NPR is no longer what it was. What would we lose if we cut it? What does NPR do? What is its function in this era?
Educational? If you're an insomniac, maybe. Or if you can program your stereo to tape it. Of course if you can do that you hardly need them. Cultural? Terry Gross, Garison Keeler, Harry Sheerer, Ira Glass? Entertaining maybe. Sometimes. But cultural? Give me a break. Classical music? Ended years ago.
"But," you say," it's an oasis in a commercial wasteland, where nobody's hawking cereal to kids, pushing cars, gasoline, computers and myriad electronic gadgets to adults, needling our materialistic impulses, our insecurities, our envy and lust, reducing the complex spiritual, emotional, psychological dimension of our essence as a people to the status of consumer..." Or words to that effect.
You know, I'd rather be construed a consumer than someone's subject, but that's beside the point. When was the last time you actually listened to NPR?
Their recognition of corporate underwriters are what we call advertisements on the private networks. They have a division for marketing posters, coffee mugs, tee shirts, handbags, cd's, radios and other consumer items. Of course they hawk this stuff on-air. These "announcements" are free for them, but similar service would cost anyone else. They're even fleecing mama, the government, along with other charities and "non-profit" agencies for advertising. Oh excuse me it's not advertisement. Those messages are announcements that express appreciation for the non-profits' "generous grant" or "underwriting " -- after the fact evidently. This bureaucratic doublespeak has assumed Nixonian proportions. But taken together, these efforts rival those of our biggest private corporations. Oh, and don't forget the nagfests they mount every three or four months to shake down listeners. All this on the taxpayer's dime.
How much do we pay Nina Totenberg for such pearls as the dire prediction quoted above (no conflict of interest there,huh)? How is she accountable? Assuming we need an official government spokesman to pronounce on matters like this, how do we assure we have the best? How much do the officers of this "public" non-profit make? Question: when was the last time NPR opened its books to public scrutiney? Aren't we entitled to know what they do with what we give them before we shell out more? After all, as they continually remind us, there's the deficit to think about.
NPR is a government sanctioned, government underwritten monopoly, one that has muscled it's way into the domain of legitimate free enterprise. At the expense of free enterprise. At taxpayer's expense.
If the government cut it, would it die? If it died, would you really miss it?
Pull the plug.
Is NPR considered a non-profit, and if so is it not illegal for non-profits to actively lobby?
Good!
Nice reply (scrutiney = scrutiny).
Perhaps we should start a petition of our own--a "Defund NPR, PBS, & NEA" petition? I look forward to the day when the radio band NPR infects is put to better use. Even white noise would be an improvement.
Not for even one second - let the private citizens put their money where their artsy-fartsy mouths are.
I don't think NPR is the direct source of this effort. It's from a private "concerned citizen", spurred into action by Totenberg's editorializing.
I'd miss some of their programming but thats not the point.
Its not right to sanction with state funds media with editorial opinions. It would be less egregious if NPR
and PBS were just science and animal shows. But, its
more than that, its an agenda. None of their personalities
is a conservative. Not one.
Plus, with all the choices available in the marketplace,
there just isn't any way to justify goverment support
of media.
Didn't the McDonalds hamburger widow give NPR $250,000,000? Spend that!
I don't think NPR is the direct source of this effort. It's from a private "concerned citizen", spurred into action by Totenberg's editorializing.
I think NPR would get a nasty shock if they had to ask their "loyal" viewers to put their money where their mouth is. Libs are cheap.
Don't forget to point out that satellite radio plays all kinds of music and other programming free from commercials - so why do we need NPR ?
K....thanx for the clarification
Every time Congress starts looking at public broadcasting funding the Libs go bonkers. Congress ALWAYS caves in the end and gives them more $. Bank on it. It's pathetic.
"Nina Totenberg said that if the Supreme Court supports Congress, it will, in effect, be the end of [NPR, PBS & NEA]."
Say what? Is there a case before the Supremes challenging the right of Congress to cut or (hopefully) eliminate funding for public broadcasting?
I would miss it, but that doesn't mean it should be government funded. I got this email from my lefty aunt. I wrote back asking why she gets to listen to her favorite radio station without commercials, but the government doesn't fund my heavy metal rock station and I have to suffer through inane advertisements. She never answered that question. I told her that it is the government subsidizing the radio station of the intelligensia. Or should I say "so called intelligensia".
If they announced they were going to stop taking tax moneys, I'd triple my former donation.
Actually I quit donating at all in protest for one of their tax whines.
I do enjoy some of the programming, and I like listening to their news if only to hear what "the other side" is saying - plus they *do* go more in depth than even the cable stations do.
Noted; corrected.
Thanks for the input, that slipped through.
Still revising, massaging this thing; planning to send it out Sunday evening.
I'm deliberately avoiding any reference to their liberal slant. Even liberals accept this, but get defensive when you bring it up.
There's enough argument without resort to that. I'm trying to mount a liberal argument against a liberal sacred cow.
Petition to Defund NPR & PBS:
http://www.petitiononline.com/fpress24/petition.html
Freep away!
I stopped listening to NPR during the elections. I could not stomach what they were getting away with as far as all the Kerry @ss-kissing and the Bush-bashing. I think the only thing I actively tune in for now is "Car Talk."
Yes, $1.12 of my taxes is too much to fund them. And my Wisconsin Public Television is the same way...and they have 3-4 "commercials" at the top of each hour now, too, disguised as thanking their donors. How stupid do they think we are? And excuse me, but what did ya do with the bazillion dollars Mr. Ray Kroc (of McDonald's fame) left you when she died? That was enough to keep NPR afloat on the interest alone, ad nauseum. Hmmm...socialists mis-managing large sums of cash? Ya never see that these days, do ya? /sarcasm
If they really want to come clean and continue to promote the leftists agends we all know they're doing as it is, just go public. Get investors, get advertisers and join the Real World. I mean, Air Amerika could use the competition, LOL!
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