Bills would defund public broadcasting

[alp227]

Source: UPI

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., introduced legislation that would end funding for public radio, saying it was a luxury the federal government can't afford.

Lamborn said federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was "unnecessary," noting funding rose 26 percent during the past decade to $430 million per year, The Hill reported Friday.

He introduced two bills that would defund the CPB Thursday -- just as he did last year.

"While I like much of NPR's programming, the fact is, it is luxury we cannot afford to subsidize," Lamborn said in a statement. "This effort to cut government spending should be part of the larger push from this new Republican Congress to cut spending and get our nation's fiscal house in order."

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/01/07/Bills-would-defund-public-broadcasting/UPI-76301294433617/

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Hmm, when was the last time Doug Lamborn ever called to defund:
- The Iraq/Afghanistan wars
- Abstinence-only education
- Corrupt charter schools
- HFCS subsidies
- Private defense contractors, e.g. Blackwater/Xe
- Corporate welfare

And isn't Lamborn a bit concerned about corporate influence on "public" broadcasters? I mean you've got the banks, oil, and farming sponsoring PBS NewsHour, and the Koch brothers sponsoring Nova. And then the conflicts of interest such as Enron sponsoring globalization documentaries, double standards on corporate vs. union/nonprofit/advocacy underwriting, and a lack of diversity. However, FAIR has also advocated replacing the CPB with an independent trust.

[Parche]

1. ok you can defund PBS

but also defund Iraq/afghanistan , oil company subsidies etc, corporate welfare etc.....


:grr:

[niyad]

2. sigh--yet another call to my idiot

[SoapBox]

3. Just read a few stories down the list.."Pentagon seeks $120B in war funds"

Disgusting how screwed up these Hating GOBPers/RushThugs/T.HATERbaggers really are.

So angry...so full of hate...such liars and hyocrites.

[4dsc]

4. And so it begins. nt

[jwirr]

5. They try that evey year. However, even repugs children watch Sesame

Street. And I suspect that many use some of the educational programs to enhance home-schooling.

[liberal N proud]

6. There must not be any money in it for a republican crony.

[KansDem]

7. How dare the people believe they own the air around them...

...let's privatize air...NOW!!!

[No Elephants]

8. The last major TV network where a bit of truth still gets through once in a while,

even though it was infected during 8 years of Dummya.

[fatbuckel]

10. That's what they're trying to do...kill the truth speakers.

[glinda]

19. It is the big "shut down". Lock up. Seal our fate.

[bergie321]

9. We need to start a movement

To require all spending cut bills to have the savings be defined in terms of "minutes of Iraq War" instead of dollars.

[ladym55]

11. When NPR kills itself to be "nice" to the right

They bent over backwards to make nice to Republicans during this election cycle to the extent I emailed them a few times to remind them to fact-check Republican talking points.

I knew all that kissing up would be useless ... NPR has been in the Rethugs' crosshairs for some time now. NPR attempts at least to provide news coverage ... not always well, but they attempt.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

12. BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS KNIFE

ABOUT TIME WE PLAYED AN EXTERMINATION POLKA

[intheflow]

13. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is

almost entirely Republican-lead, and will be until at least 2012. http://www.cpb.org/aboutcpb/leadership/board/

[dogfacedboy]

21. Yep. The Bushmonkey loaded it up with obedient whores.

[totodeinhere]

14. You would think that he would want to add more funds to NPR considering how pro Republican

most of their programming is.

[Raine]

15. GOOD best thing would be to

kick out the government and also the big corporations like oil companies and maybe PBS can go back to what it was intended to be.

[CBHagman]

17. The problem is you have to put together funding.

Arts and public broadcasting generally rely on multiple sources of funding, and if you don't raise enough from one source the matching funds from another can dry up.

Just look closely the next time you go to a museum or watch an opera simulcast -- grants and sponsors galore.

And I for one sure as hell don't want the government to get out of arts and public broadcasting funding; quite the opposite. For years I subscribed to cable, and there was a time when I enjoyed AMC, A&E, and Bravo. Now there's no reason to watch any of those channels (I gave up the cable a year or two ago anyway).

The major media companies cannot be relied upon to provide arts and educational programming, and frankly the History Channel, despite its name, does a piss-poor job as well. In fact a fair amount of cable is nothing but commercials and reruns (edited down to fit in more commercials, of course). It's the rare channel that lives up to what broadcasting, and cable in particular, can be (TCM comes immediately to mind).

[Raine]

22. Darn, yeah you're right

I was thinking maybe viewers could support it totally but that would never raise enough money. :-(

[CBHagman]

23. The Republicans go after public TV/radio funds every few years.

Remember when Newt Gingrich said Rush Limbaugh was public broadcasting? :eyes:

A while back there was that brouhaha about PBS stations and Democratic organizations sharing donor names or similar, and there was a hearing in one of the Commerce Subcommittees. I managed to attend and got an earful from the assembled reps and from the witnesses -- including filmmaker Ken Burns (The Civil War, Baseball, The War, etc.) and a representative from the conservative Media Research Center. I do not exaggerate when I say that the young man from MRC employed a phrase on the order of "liberal garbage in, liberal garbage out" to describe the content of public broadcasting.

Anyway, I'm at the point where I simply make a monthly donation to my favorite local public broadcast station, and I'm debating making symbolic donations to people in areas cursed with such PBS foes as Congressman Lamborn and Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC).

[Lorien]

16. $430 million. Wow, almost one hedge fund manager's bonus check!

Funny, you don't hear repugs screaming about the fact that the "payback" on the 700+ Billion given to the banks is 0.60 worth of stock options on each Dollar! CAN WE REALLY AFFORD THAT?????

Oh well, I guess that we'll just have to kiss public radio and television goodbye. The GOP now runs our government, or so the WH and many of their supporters here tell us. The poor ol' Senate and Whitehouse can't do anything but give them what they want, "because it's important to them", as our President would say. :puke:

[MichiganVote]

18. All this dram for the guy who now earns 2 mill? Give me a frickin' break.

The Comedy called Congress continues....

[dogfacedboy]

20. Two Words: Presidential Veto.