Every government program should have an expiration date attached to it when signed into law.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
51–60 of 646 posts
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#52Contrary 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…
Thats expected. In functioning democracies state media is run for the purpose not profit. It doesnt have the corrupting influence of political money. PBS in the US could be so much better. Just look at what BBC is able to do in the UK.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#53Must see TV when I was little was Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and Sesame Street. As I grew and my interest in what makes the natural world work became more sophisticated, Nova was something I watched regularly. Every one of these programs was supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I am saddened by this loss.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#54When I was a teenager in the 90s an old guy took me aside and told me there'd be a day we get rid of public radio, and a day we'd have our final serving of affordable tuna sushi, and that after that, I'd be living in what he deemed the future. One down.
Public television and public radio isn't going anywhere, at least not anywhere any of the rest of linear media isn't already going.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#55According to this page [1] PBS only receives about 15% of its funds from federal funding. The rest is from donations. 1: https://foundation.pbs.org/ways-to-give/gifts-to-the-pbs-end... So this certainly won't be the death of PBS, as I had feared. Update 2: For the record (easier to respond in this original post than to each response), I am not defending the decision at all. I grew up listening to NPR, and have been o…
Man, sometimes losing 15% is enough to make things unsustainable. It is not like they are an Ivy League university with an endowment bigger than a developing country's GDP.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#56When I was a teenager in the 90s an old guy took me aside and told me there'd be a day we get rid of public radio, and a day we'd have our final serving of affordable tuna sushi, and that after that, I'd be living in what he deemed the future. One down.
Hate to say it, but... username checks out, I guess
I was curious about that as well.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#57Whenever the question of federal funding for public broadcasting has come up in the past, a small army of commenters would always claim that less then 1% of the funding for public media comes from the government. Turns out that was perhaps an incomplete argument.
For NPR 1-2% of their budget came directly from the federal government mostly through the CPB. That's where the 1% number some quote comes from.
However, NPR also receives funding from member station fees, and those member stations typically get about 13% of their budgets from the federal government.
Putting it all together about 10% of NPR's budget comes from the federal government.
For PBS about 15% of their budget comes from the federal government. Some local PBS affiliates, especially in rural areas, get up to 60% of their budgets from the federal government.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#58I listen to NPR every day and, honestly, I think this might be for the best. It's going to hurt for a while, but in the end, I think public broadcasting will be stronger when it stands on its own without interference from politicians.
Most of NPR's news programming has been terrible for many years.
Pay attention to how many segments—even that are sort-of connected to an actual news event, which, many aren't—revolve around political strategy, poll numbers, and (in season, which is now like three years out of four) electoral race polling.
It's, like... a lot of them, outside the human-interest and arts coverage stuff. They consistently divert into talking about political media messaging strategy and poll numbers and crap, and they do it so very much that it's got to be something they're doing on purpose. This isn't news reporting, it's lazy, safe (because you don't have to engage with substantive questions of policy and outcomes, nor even questions of fact) horse-race bullshit. It's a complete waste of the listener's time, if they're there for actual news reporting.
On the flip side, though, I'm not seeing a lot of "sink or swim in the market" US media doing much better, so I wouldn't bet on them shifting to anything better (though shift they might).
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#59According to this page [1] PBS only receives about 15% of its funds from federal funding. The rest is from donations. 1: https://foundation.pbs.org/ways-to-give/gifts-to-the-pbs-end... So this certainly won't be the death of PBS, as I had feared. Update 2: For the record (easier to respond in this original post than to each response), I am not defending the decision at all. I grew up listening to NPR, and have been o…
It will be the death of public radio and television in small markets. Not all stations are affected equally. This is not a fiscal decision. This is a ideology that demonizes the open exchange of ideas and truth.
No I totally understand. I'm not trying to defend the decision or anything.
But I am just trying to set expectations of what people should expect to see. I'm trying to get ahead of the predictable hysteria about the death of public radio/tv.
Re: Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think public broadcasting will be stronger when it stands on its own without interference from politicians. What does the "public" in "public broadcasting" mean to you?
Ideally, it would be entirely non-commercial, funded by direct donations from the public.
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