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Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations

cpb.org

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Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations

#131

Post by dpkirchner »

smithkl42 wrote: post #76

> Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country,” Harrison said. If that was true, losing the CPB would be a travesty. But as a loyal NPR listener for decades, I've found their stuff lately to be unlistenable. It's Fox, but for the Left, and with a bit more of an…

I don't agree -- NPR is about as center-right as it's possible to be. Just look at the efforts they've made to normalize Trump, it's way over the top.

Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations

#132

Post by delichon »

I hear many things on broadcast media that are contrary to my values, and tend to prune those sources from my media diet. When I am obliged by law to support those sources anyway, I get resentful. So I have been wishing for this since Ronald Reagan proposed it.

To me the bright line of "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech" is crossed at least in spirit when the state seizes a dollar from a taxpayer and spends it on speech, because that abridges the taxpayer's resources for speech by a dollar. "You have free speech but I can take the money you use to be heard to speak against you" is a big loophole.

Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations

#134

Post by bell-cot »

monero-xmr wrote: post #80
xnx wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PBS only receives about 15% of its funds from federal funding I'm a big fan of PBS, but I wonder if this common stat is misleading. Don't a huge portion of PBS funds come from member stations, which get a portion of their funds from federal funding?

Yes it is so obviously misleading and incorrect that only the mainstream media could have perpetuated this unquestioned for decades. The federal money goes to member stations which then hands it right over to NPR to pay for programming, I believe it’s $500 per hour. It’s 1 layer of indirection but no one seemed to mention this in all of the reporting

> ...hands it right over to NPR to pay for programming, I believe it’s $500 per hour...

So - does that mean a member station could just cut back on their NPR-sourced programming, then fill the air time by playing more Frank Sinatra, and broadcasting local HS football games, and such?

Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations

#135

Post by RiverCrochet »

thevillagechief wrote: post #13

Woah! This stuff is unwinding faster than my priors. I'm going to have to re-evaluate everything I thought true about the US. I just always assumed "strong institutions" meant something here. That it was all a house built on sand is disconcerting.

I feel like there's been talk about dismantling the CPB for a long time. I recall talk about it on Rush Limbaugh's radio show in the 90's.

Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations

#136

Post by toomanyrichies »

munchler wrote: post #92
Eisenstein wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are taxes for, then?

Things that are supported by a durable majority of the population. I wish that included public broadcasting, but it doesn't. Personally, I'm tired of hearing conservatives whine about public broadcasting. This will at least shut them up for good.

> This will at least shut them up for good.

No it won't. The modern GOP is fueled by grievance. It needs an "other" in order to exist. They'll have a new enemy to rail against by this time tomorrow.

Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations

#137

Post by frumplestlatz »

Pfhortune wrote: post #85
dralley wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NPR can also be a bit of a meme sometimes. Maybe it's just circumstance but every time I hear NPR for any period of time longer than about 20 minutes they do a segment on a topic like polyamory, how women are proudly reclaiming the word "bimbo", or people protesting the administration using interpretive dance. It is certainly not programming with much mass market appeal.

Perhaps not every form of media needs to be engagement-driven? The beautiful thing about public media is that it can broadcast things that don't have a profit-motive for being broadcast.

Shouldn’t publicly funded media at least be representative of the wide diversity of views and interests that the public holds?

Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations

#138

Post by kianN »

I think the children's programming is a really undiscussed aspect of this. Some investments don't have immediately measurable outcomes. But as someone whose parents worked long hours growing up, I'm really grateful that my exposure to television was PBS rather than cable children's shows.

Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations

#139

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

efitz wrote: post #101
thrownawaysz wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Just at what BBC is able to do in the UK. This is funny because BBC is a prime example of being a propaganda channel for the government of the day. And that's not new at all just look back at the coverage of the Troubles or the miners strikes in the 70s-80s. Yes it's not on the level of CGTN or Russia Today but BBC is not neutral at all https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-how-biased-is-the-...

A lot of people are unable to see their own political bias; they look at BBC or Fox News and see “unbiased true reporting”. I highly suggest using Ground News (ground.news) for a week or a month as your sole portal into news stories, and then use their features to analyze bias in your selection of news stories and outlets. I use it regularly to try to offset my own biases.

Ground News worries me because now we don't need to use our brains the app just tells me the bias! Ground News could be biased!

Leads to shallow discussion where all news sources are tossed out for bias leaving nothing (or what ground news wants you to listen to). God forbid we critically examine for ourselves the information we consume.

Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations

#140

Post by bitshiftfaced »

legitster wrote: post #38

Contrary to the conservative spin over the years, I have found public broadcasting to be one of the least biased sources of headline news and information available. (For their national broadcasts at least - local ... can be hit or miss). In particular, their kids programming is the absolute best. Nothing flashy or exciting, but it's laser focused on education and has zero agenda. And the PBS kids apps are one of the…

> Concerned by the lack of viewpoint diversity, I looked at voter registration for our newsroom. In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans. None.

https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-tru...

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