Public Broadcasting Should Go Private

JIM DEMINT ^ | wsj

[Nachum]

If these outfits can afford to pay lavish salaries to their heads, they don't need taxpayer help.

When presidents of government-funded broadcasting are making more than the president of the United States, it's time to get the government out of public broadcasting.

While executives at the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) are raking in massive salaries, the organizations are participating in an aggressive lobbying effort to prevent Congress from saving hundreds of millions of dollars each year by cutting their subsidies. The so-called commercial free public airwaves have been filled with pleas for taxpayer cash. The Association of Public Television Stations has hired lobbyists to fight the cuts. Hundreds of taxpayer-supported TV, radio and Web outlets have partnered with an advocacy campaign to facilitate emails and phone calls to Capitol Hill for the purpose of telling members of Congress, "Public broadcasting funding is too important to eliminate!"

[okie01]

PBS and NPR could be profitable if they went private.

The management and staff, however, will resist it every step of the way.

Because, if they were private-for-profit entities, they'd have to play to their audience, rather than each other.

[snippy_about_it]

Here’s more from this great piece by my Senator which he posted on his facebook page:

Meanwhile, highly successful, brand-name public programs like Sesame Street make millions on their own. “Sesame Street,” for example, made more than $211 million from toy and consumer product sales from 2003-2006. Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary Knell received $956,513 in compensation in 2008. With earnings like that, Big Bird doesn’t need the taxpayers to help him compete against the Nickleodeon cable channel’s Dora the Explorer.

Taxpayer-subsidized broadcasting doesn’t only make money from licensing and product sales. It also raises plenty of outside cash.

Last year, for example, the Open Society Foundation, backed by liberal financier George Soros, gave NPR $1.8 million to help support the latter’s plan to hire an additional 100 reporters. When NPR receives million-dollar gifts from Mr. Soros, it is an insult to taxpayers when other organizations, such as MoveOn.org demand that Congress “save NPR and PBS” by guaranteeing “permanent funding and independence from partisan meddling,” as the liberal interest group did last month. It was even more insulting when PBS posted a message on Twitter thanking MoveOn.org—the group that once labeled Gen. David Petraeus as “General Betray Us”—for the help.

The best way to stop the “partisan meddling” in public broadcasting that MoveOn.org complains about is by ending the taxpayers’ obligation to pay for it. The politics will be out of public broadcasting as soon as the government gets out of the business of paying for it.

[PGalt]

HOORAY Jim DeMint! Defund all collectives including foreign governments. Let them live or die on their own. It’s 2011. Wake up.

Don’t stop there BUMP!

[FatherofFive]

Besides Car Talk, there is little on NPR that I find informative or entertaining.

I will listen to The Splendid Table on Sundays driving home from racquetball. Nothing else.

I can't stand the unabashed liberal bias.

[Mr. K]

if they are publice then lets see their budget and payroll records

in fect I want to see all payroll records- starting with my local school district

[wally_bert]

Give me Sam’s Garage over the tappet brothers. They aren’t all that fun any more. I did like the puzzlers though.

[wally_bert]

On the way to something earlier today, the radio was on N(L)PR. There was the usual whining about how bad gasoline was pricewise and as usual there was the bashing of “Big Oil”. Of course, no mention of the imperial congress and the confiscatory taxes, they make the most on a gallon.

In the news package, there was a building contractor interviewed and one thing the condescending reporter said in his description of an otherwise normal working guy was his “white” work truck.

[ladyjane]

Whatever you do, be careful if you take your car to the Tappet Brpthers.

Be prepared to spend many thousands of dollars for your 50,000 mile inspection.

Be prepared to have your thermostat so screwed that you don’t get any heat.

I am NOT IMPRESSED.

[wally_bert]

I wouldn’t be surprised at all. Too busy talking and laughing to actually fix something. Aren’t they MIT grads or some such?

My mechanic days are long gone, what little there were. High school auto mechanics (the only good part for 3 of 4 years) but I can work out a lot of the fluff things they talk about. Some of puzzlers I have to admit were good ones. At least I can work on my old Willys whenever I have some money for parts. My wife’s Camry and my Ranger, forget it.

Sam’s Garage runs here on the AM station but they cut it sometimes to 1 hour so the local stockbroker can pontificate and there is another hour about how dark, costly, and grim it is to take care of aged parents which is a valid subject and glad somoeone is willing to do it.

Sam’s is more down to earth and harder core and I tend to learn or get refreshers on stuff.

[OldCorps]

PBS is a fraud and money scam perpetrated upon us taxpayers. Senator DeMint is one of the few politicians with the moral courage to call PBS the public leeches that they are. DeMint is one of three senators with genuinne concern for our taxpayers and public well being.

[Ciexyz]

My family stopped giving to PBS thirty years ago when they heard stories of PBS executives riding to work in limos. That said, I do listen to the PBS classical music station in my area and appreciate the commercial free music, but hate the NPR news.

[wally_bert]

If they would stick to music of various styles and kept the propaganda to themselves, I would be more tolerant.