There has been much talk lately about cutting the funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) which is the primary mechanism to supply Federal funding to the public broadcasting stations. It is nothing new really, dating back to the inception of CPB there have been cries about the funding of television and radio stations with tax payer money. CPB was formed on November 7th 1967 when President Johnson signed into law the public broadcasting act of 1967. It was not until 1969 that the Public Broadcasting Service was established and in 1970 National Public Radio was formed. Historically 15-20% of the aggregate revenues for those stations come through CPB. Their budget is composed almost entirely of an annual appropriation from Congress plus interest on those funds. For fiscal year 2010, its appropriation was $422 million.
Yep, 422 million ANNUALLY and by my math that is about what our government is wasting per day fighting wars in foreign countries – that is PER DAY folks (based on the last number I found of 12 billion per month). Another comparative number is Medicaid, which is in the neighborhood of 833 million dollars a day, again that is PER DAY! Or if one were to look at social security, we are talking about a whopping 2.2 billion dollars a day, 2 billion dollars a day. If we look at the normal defense budget, 1.9 BILLION dollars a day. Those damn numbers do not even fit inside my head, the scope of money that the government spends each day is staggering and scary. I was only using those federal programs to demonstrate comparisons on the money, I in no way am comparing the services of Social Security and Military spending to PBS and NPR funding.
With CPB funded at 1.1 million dollars a day it seems so out of place to be on the chopping block. Those 1.1 million dollars a day cover about 350 local TV stations and about 900 local radio stations. When I say local, most are producing and broadcasting locally oriented programming that no one else would or could do. That local content is critical to the communities they serve. If overly simple math were used (the kind I can understand) on those funds it comes out to about $880 bucks a day per station. Now I know the distribution is not even among any of them and it is based on market size (how many people can hear or watch) but you can see that the federal funding is not enough to keep us going. It is however significant enough to have a detrimental impact on the local stations if it goes away and I do not want to imagine a world without the programming and services PBS and NPR provide.
Especially when you consider that on the TV side, PBS provides kiddo safe programming, FREE over the air, to every person in the United States using the ultimate wireless technology, all you need is a TV and a coat hanger. And it is not just shows like you might find on Nickelodeon or the cartoon network, these are all shows that bear the small “e i” at the top. That "e i" means that those programs are teaching our yut’s something meaningful. You do not get that for providing sponge bob square pants, while entertaining it has no real educational value at all. That means if you must use a boob tube as a babysitter you will never have to worry about what your kids are watching on PBS, NEVER!! I grew up fascinated by what Mr. Rogers was showing me and later realized that Big Bird was teaching me lessons I would need later in life for conflict resolution. You do not get that from regular cartoons folks and you never will.
On the radio side, NPR does provide more in-depth stories than any of the so called news outlets. Sure most folks on the right, and I was one of them, claim that it is 100% liberal nonsense. Trust me when I tell you, I used to think that way as well and ya know why – because they were presenting a viewpoint that I did not agree with. The so called news organizations today are driven by ratings and base their coverage on whatever the news cycle is for that particular moment in time. We have all seen it, putting two idiots on opposite sides of the table and letting them spew their take on whatever topic for 3 minutes each does not constitute news. No one ever digs into the story to find out which one is lying and call bullshit on them, not that they do not want to BUT because there is always another news cycle and the details of the story will not make ratings, only the sensational bullshit they call Fair and Balanced or The Worldwide Leader in News or A Fuller Spectrum of News or any other number of tag lines. I am not saying that all are biased, only that none of them are without bias. I feel strongly that NPR and the little bit of PBS news is at least telling us more of the story than the others are.
Anyway, if you do not know, I work for a PBS and NPR station, I have been there 13 years and it is the best, most rewarding job I have ever had. I doubt that I will ever work for a for profit company again, being able to work at a place that is mission driven is SO DIFFERENT than working for one that is bottom line driven. I am not saying that being driven by the dollar is a bad thing at all, it is the American way. But I am saying that mission driven organizations are also an important part of our society. Where would Parkinson’s research be without Michael J Fox, they would be 228 million dollars behind where they are now. Imagine a world with no Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, the ultimate republican doing good things because they need doing. At WJCT (in Jacksonville Fl) WJCT’s mission is to provide programming and services that celebrate human diversity, encourage joyful learning, promote civic participation and empower citizens to improve the quality of their lives.
That mission covers a lot of ground and they do SO much more than just broadcast programming to radios and televisions. They provide outreach programs to teacher and kids and the commitment goes far beyond television, encompassing Ready To Learn, Share a Story, and other initiatives that put educational tools directly in the hands of parents and caregivers. WJCT is a trusted classroom resource, providing free lesson plans, teachers’ guides and online activities for K-12 educators. Assisting parents, caregivers and educators in countless ways, to help kids succeed.
I have also heard the talk about Sesame Street being able to stand on its own, and it could, if the playing field were equal. The problem is, the playing field is not equal, public broadcasting is severely limited by the charter that the congress setup all those years ago. They do not have commercials, they have underwriting and most folks do not know or understand the difference. There is a book about 5 inches thick that details the rules about the content of those underwriting spots, there can be no calls to action statements. There are also very few places to insert underwriting, there is usually about 84 to 168 seconds of time per hour that is not programming. In that short amount of time they have to get in a legal identification, any promo’s for upcoming shows and events and any underwriting they can get in there. There are simply not enough seconds per hour to get enough ad revenue in there, even if there were not the crazy rules they must operate under.
The spots on PBS and NPR stations are only allowed to talk about the attributes of the product being presented, there can be no comparisons of products like you see in regular television commercials. Like this car has a better handling that that other car, you will see none of that and hear none of that on PBS or NPR. Big deal you might say, well I used to agree BUT the folks who want to advertise primary want that kind of sensationalistic spot, hell I would as well if I were advertising. I mean some of those super bowl commercials are incredible. Public Broadcasting can not do that, not because they don’t want to but because they are not allowed and all things are obviously not equal.
PBS remains #1 in public trust, with 49% of the population of our country trusting PBS “a great deal“. Second in trust are “courts of law,” which are trusted “a great deal by 27%”. The first in public trust, 49%!! That is not insignificant to me and it should not be insignificant to you either. It seems completely crazy to me that CPB is being targeted for removal from the budget, removal of funds. I mean of all the things that our government wastes money on, on a monumental scale, CPB is a cheap date with a hell of a foot print in our society. I mean seriously, who among us has not enjoyed an episode of Mr. Rogers? I am not afraid to admit it, I enjoyed watching that show well into adulthood. He did very interesting things long before there were a glut of cheap imposters.
I can’t imagine a world without public broadcasting in it, from Bert and Ernie to Elmo to Nova and Scientific American Frontiers to Morning Edition to Car talk . Are they all good, no, but they all have meaning to someone and without them our country would be missing an important part of who we are. And with only 422 million dollars at stake, we are not going to balance the federal or state budgets by cutting that funding from the budget, NO WAY and NOT EVEN CLOSE.
I am asking that you follow this link and let your vote count, if for no other reason than I asked ya to.
http://www.170millionamericans.org/
Here is a link to WJCT’s site
http://www.wjct.org/about
And here is a GREAT article by Rick Steve’s about the issue.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-02-17-column17_ST1_N.htm?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d5eaeb327587299%2C0
Friday, February 25, 2011
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