Posted on 01/14/2011 1:29:55 AM PST by raccoonradio
The newly elected members of the 112th Congress are working from a conservative ideological playbook and talking a big game where budget-cutting is concerned. Inevitably they will be tempted by a proverbial piece of low-hanging fruit, the $420 million annual appropriation for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“This is the most serious threat to federal funding that public broadcasting has ever faced,’’ says Mike Riksen, National Public Radio vice president for policy and representation. Does he expect the CPB budget to be reduced, or eliminated entirely? “A reasonable person would plan for the latter,’’ he said. “That’s what we are planning for, and that’s what we are anticipating.’’
Threats from the un-silent armies who take their marching orders from Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Fox News make for good bulletin board material at fund-raising time. There is, however, another current of thought within public broadcasting, being kept strictly on the down low: Public broadcasters — and especially prosperous stations like Boston’s WGBH and WBUR — might be better off without the government’s money.
Argument one: Who needs the headache?
Taxpayer dollars flowing though the bloodstream of public broadcasting mean any lickspittle public official or deadline-challenged columnist can wave the bloody shirt of editorial bias, real or imagined. Of course PBS and NPR are biased — so what? Their weak-tea, center-left tilt hardly threatens the republic
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
one of the comments:
>>FWIW, I do not take “marching orders from Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Fox News”, none of which I watch or listen to. However, I deeply resent paying for the “annoying” “center-left” twaddle that emanates from the effete nincompoops on NPR. (Note to self: a “center-leftist” must be a leftist holding a glass of wine instead of a Molotov cocktail. I suppose that’s an improvement... still, color me unimpressed.)
There’s absolutely no excuse for a government supposedly committed to a free press and the religio/politico neutrality that commonly gets labeled “separation of church & state” to underwrite a propaganda channel that’s not explicitly governmental, and therefore constrained by 1st Amendment principles.
Anyone who thinks NPR’s tripe is “important” can dig into their own pockets for the funding: but get your hands out of mine!
my comment:
>>Let them run ads. “Car Talk will be right back after this message from Advance Auto Parts.” Or take private contributions, corporate donations, etc. but not federal funding. There are many sources for news, music, etc. programming and we don’t need a federally financed one.
(Talking both NPR and PBS here.)
How about the idea of having a separate public network which tilts right? Would you like your tax dollars subsidizing
The Sarah Palin Show on NPR-2, hmm? How about another PBS out there which tilts right. Naaah, never mind, just defund NPR and PBS and let them enjoy their wine and brie in their Taj Mahal studios on Guest St. (right across from WRKO/WEEI). Those stations are funded by ads. WGBH, by “listeners like you”.
I don’t listen and I don’t intend to pay.
Cut the NPR news division and if they leave anything, leave my all classical public broadcasting station alone. The classical music with no commercials is a blessing. Who needs to hear their biased NPR news.
In Boston they converted WGBH radio to mostly news/talk, tilting left of course, and bought classical station WCRB 99.5 which is now “WGBH All Classical” (made into non-commercial; formerly was commercial)
(The conversion also wiped out long running folk and blues shows on WGBH 89.7)
Even if they tilted right, they need to drum up their own funding as do their rival radio stations.
The USA is bankrupt, the States and cities are broke (see ILL, NJ and CA etc.) funding NPR is irrelevant and if the present fiscal policy continues, the entire economy will collapse. There is a point at which politics ceases and which the mathematics takes over.
The issue is not funding NPR but surviving, the shortfall of SS, welfare, unemployment, and defense.
Sirius or XM. I’d like commercial free football games too, but I don’t think the taxpayer needs to pay for my preferences.
I have wondered if all the licensing revenue from Barney, Sesame Street, etc., funnelled back to PBS rather than the creators, how much of the total operating expense would that cover?
Gee! ...$420 million here. $420 million there and pretty soon that adds up to real money. (/s)
NPR in my area is run out of our local state university and uses university facilities and equipment. I am willing to bet my entire 401K that the accounting practices of that local station ( with regard to true taxpayer support) would make an Enron accountant blush.
Not only would I like to see a complete end to federal subsidies to NPR but I would like NPR thrown off our state college campuses. ( "Throw"...is that too violent?) If they can't make it on their own in private staff facilities with privately purchased equipment they deserve to financially die.( OOps! "die" is incendiary.)...Please change that to, "financially go belly up". ( OOps! is that too inflammatory?)
And that **unctuous**NPR voice. Do these guys and gals go to NPR talking school? Who do you know or have ever met that talks like that?
It also means that any lickspittle columnist such as the execrable Alex Beam can spout their vitriol and drivel and earn a buck while preaching to the uncritically-thinking, unwashed mobs who take their marching orders from the likes of the New York Times and the Globe...
(It's great fun to write like a know-nothing libtard columnist, isn't it, Alex?)
Lots of people. But they've all been urban homosexuals.
Good point.
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