Cy Guy's Journal: Save NPR and PBS (again)

The following was sent out by MoveOn.org:

Hi,

Everyone expected House Republicans to give up efforts to kill NPR and PBS after a massive public outcry stopped them last year. But they've just voted to eliminate funding for NPR and PBS--unbelievably, starting with programs like "Sesame Street."

Public broadcasting would lose nearly a quarter of its federal funding this year. Even worse, all funding would be eliminated in two years--threatening one of the last remaining sources of watchdog journalism.

Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS again this year:

http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Last year, millions of us took action to save NPR and PBS, and Congress listened. We can do it again if enough of us sign the petition in time.

This would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting. The Boston Globe reports the cuts "could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs." NPR's president expects rural public radio stations may be forced to shut down.

The House and Senate are deciding if public broadcasting will survive, and they need to hear from viewers like you. Sign the petition at:

http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Thanks!

P.S. Read the Boston Globe story on the threat to NPR and PBS at:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1864

Let them die

[bofkentucky]

We have low power FM for public broadcasting

Is this the gov't's business?

[bethanie]

Should the government really be in the business of subsidizing radio and television networks? I mean, more than they already do with the other mainstream broadcast ones.

As far as Sesame Street goes -- CTW has generated spinoffs and whored out their characters to so many crappy products (particularly the junk food, which I resent the hell out of), that I *know* they're not hurting for money.

Ray Kroc's widow left a huge endowment for NPR. They haven't been hurting for money since then.

So if it's not mone

Re:Is this the gov't's business?

[baldass_newbie]

I wonder if the DNC and NPR are still trading donor lists [pbs.org].
Of course, you know the DNC and MoveOn trade donor lists, so if you give to NPR are you going to get spam/mailings from MoveOn?

Like you say, Sesame Street (and its creators) ain't hurting for cash. Far from a ping pong ball and sock (the original Kermit puppet) to Frank Oz as the freaking voice for Yoda, they have cash, just not YOUR cash. Between the above mentioned scandal and Bill Moyers op-ed pieces posing as 'investigative journalism', I say l

Re:Is this the gov't's business?

[leoPetr]

I think the question is -- why does the BBC work, the CBC mostly work, and the PBS not work all that well? What are the differences between the three?

Re:Is this the gov't's business?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

The BBC works because they require licensing of TV sets to recieve their signal- or in fact any signal at all, since they are a state owned monopoly- which is the tax that all of their money comes from. The CBC works because they had very little competition for a long time- lots of places in Canada get no other over-the-air signal. PBS doesn't work because it isn't 100% government funded, and has competition.

Good

[ellem]

That's more money for bombs!

Seriously though. PBS/NPR can either sink or swim on its own just like any other network. I certainly don't need to pay for it. I buy my Sesame Street crap at 20USD a pop. Don't tell me they need money Elmo On Ice!

If the FCC forces cable to go al a carte how many people do you think will bother signing up for PBS? 4. I think it will be 4.

Re:Good

[tomhudson]

Um, guys ... CTW != NPR. We've been here before - 20 years ago, it was the exact same debate.

Sure, the producers of Sesame Street have the bucks, but that money doesn't go to NPR, it goes to the not-for-profit Children's Television Workshop
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/childre n ste/childrenste.htm [museum.tv]

By the 1980s, many of the funds for CTW were generated from Sesame Street product sales, the Sesame Place amusement Park, and from Sesame Street Live, a touring company. CTW became an unhappy part

Re:Good

[ellem]

Oh no a radio station won't make it?

Satellite will make AM/FM the rabbit ears of media soon anyway.

Re:Good

[tomhudson]

Rabbit-ears still work for a lot of people :-)

Satellite can't compete on price. It also can't compete on convenience, in comparison to an mp3 player.

cash money

[Mantorp]

Didn't NPR get some huge endowment just last year? Enough to keep them running in perpetuity?

How are they hurting for money?

[SiliconJesus]

I listen to NPR all the time. Half of the media is produced centrally (and even overseas in the case of BBC news), and distributed locally. They have funding drives all the time, bringing in thousands of cash. The thing that amuses me greatly is that NPR is the ONLY STATION POWERFUL ENOUGH to be heard from my office all the way to my house without interruption (even over the two mountains where I lose ALL OTHER STATIONS FROM BOTH BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON DC). They're hemmoraging money somewhere, either