IF there is sufficient demand for NPR, it should be able to stand on its own...period. The PBS TV funding is, in fact, a tougher nut to crack because of the emotional games played with the children’s programming. If compromise is needed, they need to maintain funding for only the children’s educational portions and dump the rest. In 2011, there are a dozen or two dozen other channels with political roundtables and news. The model created 50 years ago simply is not relevant today. Shift the children’s education into a different department, and slice the rest.
The "model" was based on classical music and "education" for areas which were "underserved". Lake Placid, NY served as the "model" -- being a 100 miles away from any other signal...and in the Adirondack mountains where no signal could reach.
It was also the ski resort of choice for the era's "beautiful people".
Children's programming wasn't part of the "model" until the late sixties -- early seventies.
What we have now is a whole network full of programming that is a.) self-indulgent on the part of the producers and actors and b.) funded by the taxpayers...when there is absolutely no need for their product! That's without bringing up the issue of their incessant liberal politicking.
If the producers and actors want to survive, then they should turn a profit -- just like the rest of us do. If they can't do that, they should expire -- just like the rest of us do.
Beneath it all, I don't care that they are universally liberal. I care that they prosper on the subsidy provided by my tax money.