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Democrats pushed back Republican attempts today in the House to cut funding, but come January, the Republicans will be back there are six—bills by ultra-conservatives that would slash all funding for NPR, PBS, and other public media.
National public broadcasting is remarkably cost effective, providing local news and information, free of charge, for millions of viewers while only receiving about .0001% of the federal budget.More to the point, it's nearly impossible to put a price tag on the actual value of public broadcasting.
In many rural and less affluent communities, broadcasters rely on federal funding to provide the only available high-quality news and public affairs programming. Without public media, corporate media monopolies would increase their already large control of what we see on television, hear on the radio or read in the newspaper.
At a time when media consolidation is shrinking the number of perspectives we have access to over the airwaves and when newsrooms are shrinking, we need more diversity in our media not less. And we simply cannot afford to lose what public media brings to the table.
http://www.freepress.net/press-release/2011/2/16/1000000-americans-petition-congress-protect-npr-pbs-and-other-public-media
National public broadcasting is remarkably cost effective, providing local news and information, free of charge, for millions of viewers while only receiving about .0001% of the federal budget.More to the point, it's nearly impossible to put a price tag on the actual value of public broadcasting.
In many rural and less affluent communities, broadcasters rely on federal funding to provide the only available high-quality news and public affairs programming. Without public media, corporate media monopolies would increase their already large control of what we see on television, hear on the radio or read in the newspaper.
At a time when media consolidation is shrinking the number of perspectives we have access to over the airwaves and when newsrooms are shrinking, we need more diversity in our media not less. And we simply cannot afford to lose what public media brings to the table.
http://www.freepress.net/press-release/2011/2/16/1000000-americans-petition-congress-protect-npr-pbs-and-other-public-media
