The Corporation for Public Broadcasting

The following two articles convey the issue for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

 

On the red side, party of abraham lincoln today, you have the old idea that the market always provides. So the idea is, taxpayer dollars are not needed cause the market will provide, and if it didn't it will when applicable. This is what I call the black panther argument. yes, Disney made Black Panther, but Disney also knows that the modern circa 2020 black populace globally has billions of dollars, thus the financial revenue capable to provide from black film goers warrants a 99% black film in casting/writing/direction et cetera. And Coogler to his credit in Black Panther 2 and Sinners has brought Indigenous creatives along for the ride.  The red side like the idea that whether the market doesn't support or does support an entertainment, it is an even thing. 

 

On the blue side, party of andrew jackson today, you have the old idea that the usa has an imbalanced marketplace based on centuries of blockading by white male christian heterosexual immigrants to the indigenous/black/female/muslim/asian/lgbtq/or other. And that has created a modern audience that has been engineered to desire or accept certain qualities of entertainment that can not be undone through the marketplace. Sequentially, avenues are needed that allow entertainment that doesn't fit the norm from 1492 or even 1176 or even the 1960s to be viewed or accessed and since the USA majority in the past caused the imbalanced marketplace, their descendants plus the descendants of those killed/terorrized/enslaved by the historic majority should all be willing to pay. 

 

I have always said that black people with money in the usa historically but definitely in modernity have never navigated their two simultaneous goals well. They want to make money aside any and all other fiscally wealthy people in this white designed system in the usa While supporting plus improving the black community in the usa. They tend to do decently in the former and terribly in the latter. But the usa has a financial debt to the indigenous to the descended of enslaved that is priceless, can never be paid, so at least it can put a down payment. 

 

ARTICLE ELEPHANT

Marjorie Taylor Greene often errs, but not about defunding public broadcasting | Opinion
The uncomfortable reality is that NPR and PBS have long since outlived their utility. Now the federal government is simply paying for content whether taxpayers support it or not.
Cameron SmithColumnist
april 3rd 2025 5pm ct

When U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, makes a pronouncement, I brace for impact the same way I’d prepare for a car or train wreck.

Her bombastic style might be popular with MAGA voters, but it’s frequently a distraction from Republican governing priorities. Occasionally, even the loudest voices land on a truth worth considering.

This time, she’s right − the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) should be eliminated.

For years, conservatives have argued that taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund media CPB outlets like National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) because of their politically biased programming and leadership.
To date, Congress has largely avoided those arguments as yet another round of culture war bickering.
NPR's past statements show clear partisanship
In recent testimony before Congress, NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher admitted concern when confronted with the allegation that 100% of her editorial board − 87 members − are registered Democrats. Notably, she did not dispute the allegation.

Regrettably, Maher’s prior public comments have become a political lightning rod.

In 2016, she lamented Hillary Clinton’s use of the terms “boy and girl” as erasing language for non-binary people. In 2020, Maher referred to President Donald Trump as a “deranged racist sociopath.” In a 2022 TED Talk, she infamously stated, “our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.”

Maher’s political views are quite liberal and particularly well established in spite of her apparent amnesia about the same during her congressional testimony.
It doesn’t matter.

American CEOs with political hot takes are a dime a dozen. The main difference between Maher and her executive peers is that most CEOs run companies which aren’t funded by the American taxpayer. When the person leading a publicly funded media entity openly speaks like a political activist, the premise that NPR offers an unbiased, fair approach to programming doesn’t hold water.

Shockingly, that doesn’t really matter either.
Broadcast landscape has changed as consumer habits have
The CPB shouldn’t exist at all. The First Amendment enshrines a free press to hold government power accountable. A government-funded media apparatus, no matter how unbiased it claims to be, cannot credibly serve that end because political masters hold the financial reins. Government must be able to communicate to the public, but CPB is inherently state programming masquerading as a typical media outlet.
Defenders of NPR and PBS will argue that CPB provides essential programming that wouldn’t otherwise survive in a purely commercial media landscape. That might have been the case in the era of three television networks and a handful of AM radio stations, but the world has changed. The explosion of digital media has shattered any legitimate claim that we need government-funded television or radio to ensure diverse perspectives and high-quality journalism.
Americans today have more media choices than ever before. Streaming services, podcasts, YouTube channels, and independent news sites provide content precisely tailored to every conceivable interest and ideology. If a viewpoint or niche deserves an audience, it can and will find one without taxpayer dollars propping it up.

Testifying with Maher, Alaska Public Media’s Ed Ulman claimed public media may be the only option for rural emergency broadcasts. "We provide potentially life-saving warnings and alerts that are crucial for Alaskans who face threats ranging from extreme weather to earthquakes, landslides and even volcanoes," he said.

While such communications are indeed essential, we have countless ways of providing them which don’t justify the existence of a federal media bureaucracy. Elon Musk’s Starlink comes immediately to mind as a radically more efficient solution for emergency communications than CPB’s $500 million annual cost.

NPR and PBS can survive without the government's dime
Others will contend that NPR and PBS produce valuable content beyond public communications, such as educational programming and cultural shows. The reality is that PBS doesn’t own most of its iconic programs. It secures the rights to run them through acquisition deals. If these programs are truly valuable, the content-hungry modern media marketplace would certainly air them.

Take "Sesame Street," once the flagship defense of public broadcasting, for example.

In 2016, HBO secured rights to first-runs of the popular children’s program with episodes running on PBS several months later. At the end of 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of HBO, opted not to renew the Sesame Street deal. One of the most memorable shows of my childhood is presently homeless. If PBS’s most venerated show can’t find market traction, what does that say about how much Americans value CPB content?

The uncomfortable reality is that NPR and PBS have long since outlived their utility. Now the federal government is simply paying for content whether taxpayers support it or not.

Pulling the plug on CPB funding wouldn’t “silence” NPR or PBS. They could continue to operate with private donations, subscription models, or sponsorships − just like every other media outlet struggling today.

In a free society, the press should hold the government accountable, not be an extension of it. That’s the principle that matters here. And it’s why, despite the messenger, Greene’s argument to eliminate the CPB merits strong consideration.

USA TODAY Network Tennessee Columnist Cameron Smith is a Memphis-born, Brentwood-raised recovering political attorney raising four boys in Nolensville, Tenn., with his particularly patient wife, Justine. Direct outrage or agreement to smith.david.cameron@gmail.com or @DCameronSmith on Twitter. Agree or disagree? Send a letter to the editor to letters@tennessean.com.

URL
https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/columnists/2025/04/03/public-broadcasting-funding-marjorie-taylor-greene/82764143007/

 

 

I sent a letter to the Tennesseean in reply
letters@tennessean.com

Richard Murray, 
PO Box ~

 

07/19/2025

Dear Editor
I reply to the quality of ("Marjorie Taylor Greene often errs, but not about defunding public broadcasting" , April 3rd 2025)

I have never seen anyone who suggest programs of similar or better quality than that of PBS make a list to said programs. If I want to see a documentary as good as "The Civil War" or "The Vietnam War" by Ken Burns outside CPB/PBS where do I go? If I want to see a documentary about a financially impoverished , populationwise impotent population like "Alaska's Vanishing Native Village" by Frontline outside of CPB/PBS where do I go? 
The best way to prove that the private media market has the same quality programs isn't to say they exist, but to list them. And if you can't list them, then one can only assume they don't exist in the private media market.

I am black and I have heard my entire life from whites who live in New York City, that the marketplace is the answer to everything. It always has the solutions or will have the solutions. Now even though Nat King Cole couldn't get sponsors with more viewers than any other show in the usa in the past... in modernity , streaming services or cable networks that are advertised as black owned exist. So,  Cameron Smith's argument is , why can't a Black owned cable network or streaming service host a show like Finding your roots by henry louis gates jr. and if it fails there, if fails. For Indigenous or Black people the centuries of being blockaded by whites to fiscal activities/market activities in the USA were market manipulators. In the USA, the problem with modernity is the past didn't arrive today in a ship of opportunity. One group, white christian heterosexual men through the power of the gun, obtained all the opportunities so no industry in the usa today has the centuries of business ownership or labor participation it should had by Indigenous/Blacks/Women/Asians so it is malformed in modernity. The CPB/PBS/NPR allow for what was lacking for centuries to have a small outlet in modernity and I argue since whites killed the native american, enslaved the black american, the taxpayers on whole who are mostly white shouldn't be opposed to paying for an imbalance their forebears made that gives them more opportunities than others today.

 

IN AMENDMENT

I said let me find a list of black owned media networks, or supposedly black owned. 

 

LIST OF SUPPOSEDLY BLACK OWNED STREAMING SERVICES
https://www.kweli.tv/livetv
https://allblk.tv/ (no live stream)
https://vimeo.com/user50164403 (Afrokids on vimeo)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0TLvo891eEEM6HGC5ON7ug (youtube from Afrokids)
https://www.brownsugar.com/?ref=blog.obws.com
https://www.oprah.com/app/live-tv.html
https://www.youtube.com/c/SLAYTV/featured (youtube channel for lgbtq+)
https://www.afrolandtv.com/
https://urbanflixtv.com/pages/new_catalog
https://urbn-tv.com/?ref=blog.obws.com

 

LIST OF SUPPOSEDLY BLACK OWNED CABE NETWORKS
https://watchimpact.com/
https://tvone.tv/
https://aspire.tv/
https://www.bouncetv.com/
https://theafricachannel.com/
https://www.ssn.tv/
https://www.revolt.tv/
https://www.youtube.com/@mycleotv

 

IN AMENDMENT 2

Looking at them briefly, most of the content is: 

• gossip shows(sport gossip or entertainment gossip or music gossip)
• situational comedies (which I nearly despise, it is very rare that I like a situational comedy)
• soap opera or telenovela(another I can't stand)
• religious (christian pastors)
• black genre films (comedy or the urban gun)

I have got to find a space to become a better commercial writer to black people

 

 

ARTICLE DONKEY

Opinion - Here's why Republicans hate public broadcasting so much
Patricia Aufderheide, Common Dreams
July 18, 2025 12:00PM ET
Our public radio and TV stations are in grave peril, and with them the unique services they perform for our communities.
By the end of day Friday July 18, we’ll know if Congress has clawed back the money it already gave to public broadcasting, through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB. (The House will decide; this is your moment to call your representatives to ask them to support their public radio and TV stations, and to join — for free — Protectmypublicmedia.org.) Even if that money stays protected, though, public radio and TV will continue to be attacked.

I’ve studied public broadcasting here and around the world for 40 years. And I serve on the board of directors of the taxpayer-funded Independent Television Service, which coproduces a lot of the documentaries you might see on public TV. So, of course, I think it’s an important part of our media in America. But I think you probably do, too.
You might know public broadcasting through your local TV or radio station, both private nonprofits. Or you might know it through the services many such stations depend on for daily, high-quality, award-winning programs: National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Both of them are private nonprofits that make, select, and bundle programs for public stations.

Either way, you’re in good company. PBS and NPR are the most trusted media brands in the United States. Half of PBS viewers depend on PBS for news and information, including more than half of people who identify as “extreme conservatives” or “extreme liberals.” NPR’s news is trusted by more than half of those who have heard of it. Americans trust public media news and public affairs much more (by half) than they do commercial mainstream media.

Public stations, like those in Oklahoma, are the ones to issue emergency warnings in time of crisis. Kids learn about job opportunities from CPB’s American Graduate: Jobs Explained series — supported among others by Iowa, Tennessee, and Arizona public broadcasters. In rural Eureka, California, the public station carries program for the local indigenous communities. In south Texas, KDET provides distance learning for kids whose first language is Spanish. ITVS documentaries have brought you inside stories from small towns like Medora, Indiana; Taft, Oklahoma; Norco, Louisiana; and Huslia, Alaska.

American taxpayers contribute, overall, about 15% of the budgets of public radio and TV stations — a percentage that’s usually lower for the bigger, more urban stations, and higher for smaller, rural stations. Alleghany Mountain Radio and KTNA in Talkeetna, Alaska for instance depend on federal funds for about two-third of their budgets. Last year CPB’s budget was $535 million. (For comparison, military marching bands cost the American taxpayers more than $300 million a year.) The rest comes from us as individual donors, from private and corporate foundations, and from local and state taxes.

So it’s not big funding and cutting it would make no dent in the deficit. But it’s critical funding; it’s the money that leverages all the rest of it, and that provides the stability to be able to do the work year after year.

The people who designed public broadcasting — and that included a lot of people, from the late Bill Moyers as an aide to President Lyndon Johnson, to military experts and educators — were worried about how government funding could become censorship. So they created CPB as a private nonprofit, not as a government agency. That is why the Trump administration cannot fire its staff or its board.

CPB and local stations all have First Amendment protection against government interference. And that is why the Trump administration cannot tell them what to program or which services, like NPR and PBS, to use. The designers required Congress to give CPB its budget two years in advance, to protect against political shenanigans. That is why Congress has to vote to claw that money back.

What public broadcasting’s designers created is unique in the world — most countries’ public broadcasting is just a mouthpiece for government. In the U.S., public broadcasting plays a unique role in our media diets as free, reliable, and trusted information, a connection to local communities, and a daily example of the essential role of shared public knowledge in democratic life.

If it goes, we won’t get it back.

So far, public broadcasting has weathered political attacks, which didn’t begin with this administration but have reached a new high with it. But it has only done so by depending on its users—you and me—to come out and show their support. Right now is the time to call your representatives, and to join Protectmypublicmedia.org. (Protect My Public Media makes it super-easy to connect with your reps.) We all have something to lose.

Patricia Aufderheide is professor in the School of Communication at American University. She is a board member of the Independent Television Service.

URL
https://www.rawstory.com/corporation-for-public-broadcasting/