Public broadcasting under attack.
By on Jun 9th, 2006 at 10:54 am
Public broadcasting under attack.
“House Republicans yesterday revived their efforts to slash funding for public broadcasting, as a key committee approved a $115 million reduction in the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs,” the Boston Globe reports.
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I beat unbelievable.
June 9th, 2006 at 10:59 amThe Republicans are like tenacious, hard to kill insects. They just keep mindlessly coming back again and again until they either bore the hole they’re trying to bore or the exterminator does away with them. They are mindless, greedy, immoral in their dishonesty,and totally self centered. They don’t care about what is fair, right, or compassionate. Until we on the left get tough with them, they will continue to try to mow over anything in their path that isn’t in their direct self interest. We have to clarify who we are and fight them. PBS has a history of informing the public….it cannot be destroyed.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:01 amPBS has a history of informing the public….it cannot be destroyed.
Comment by s
Which is exactly why they want to kill it.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:05 am“Still, Republicans say they remain adamant that public broadcasting cannot receive funding at the expense of healthcare and education programs.
Republicans are looking for ways to save taxpayers’ dollars, amid fiscal conservatives’ concerns over the budget deficit.”
Nice framing. Your liberal media, folks.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:09 amI think we can all certainly trust the corporate MSM to give us fair and balanced rightwing propaganda while we buy their advertised products between the lies.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:10 amSince when did Republicans care about education and health care?
June 9th, 2006 at 11:11 amAside from caring about cutting funding for education or undermining affordable health care.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:13 amWe don’t need no steenkin’ quasi public media in the US.! sarcasm off
I do not say independent public media because back in the late sixties PBS was forced to take on corporate sponsors who squashed more than one program about the Vietnam, War, anti-corporate issues,pollution,dagerous products(chemicals),alternative politics etc.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:23 amRepublicans are looking for ways to save taxpayers’ dollars, amid fiscal conservatives’ concerns over the budget deficit.â€
Nice framing. Your liberal media, folks.
Comment by heh — June 9, 2006 @ 11:09 am
Yup that war in Iraq has sure saved me a bundle.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:23 am“They are mindless, greedy, immoral in their dishonesty,and totally self centered. They don’t care about what is fair, right, or compassionate.” Too long for a bumper sticker but I like it! What is dishonest is calling the news (sic) programs on PBS unbiased. It’s like like saying the KKK isn’t racists. Big Bird would survive all on it’s own as would most of the educational programs if they had to get sponsorship. What wouldn’t survive are those unbiased news (sic) programs that the LLL m0onb@+5 love so much. But this is Amercia so if you love them go ahead and pay for them out of your pocket. Cry me a friggin river.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:24 amAh the beggining of the end of corporate welfare. That is what you want right?
June 9th, 2006 at 11:28 amAhhh … nothing like right-wing trolls. Funny they can’t understand that showing both sides of an issue and using things like facts and analysis is a key to truly understanding an issue.
But that’s what you get when you watch too much Fox News.
I’m also not surprised that they don’t understand how relying on advertising kills journalism.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:35 amRetired Republican Soldier still hasn’t figured out that what he’s so pleased happens to liberals, also happens to him.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:37 am-this is why you may have to contribute to programs like Democracy Now! or Free Speech TV. You just may have to pay for the truth at this point.Cut out the higher tier cable TV and sat. programming(if you can’t afford it) and donate it to one of these or other independent media organizations. You have to vote with Dollars now seeing that your real vote is virtually worthless.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:40 amYou libs have as much money as anyone else. If you wish for public broadcasting to remain commercial free. Stop supporting Answer and Move On and give your money to PBS.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:44 amThe Republicans and the right-wingers have conviced themselves that their militant, nationalist beliefs are “mainstream”. They can’t stand having the truth and facts poitned out to them that contradict their belief that they are not actually mainstream or even realistic.
This is why the right tries so hard to shut everyone else up. BNobdoy is allowed to have a voice in right-wing America, unless that voice re-affirms what they already believe. And the public, certianly, shouldn’t be allowed to have a voice. If they did…GASP…they might expose corporate wrong doing. Tehy might expose media short falls. They might inform the population about political scandals and hypocrisy.
No, the right-wing wouldn’t survive if there was open and honest discourse so they have to choke it out. The right-wing is about control and keeping people clueless. They certainly don’t want to pay money for something they can’t control.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:51 amIts not about suppresseng other voices. PBS is not being outlawed you dip. You want a free ride at my expense. Well the free ride is over. Suck it up.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:57 am#15. Good idea. From now on, we should be paying not just for interesting and cultural programs, but also for good conversations with friends, a nice aroma, laughters, blue skies, maybe even air…you know all those cool things that dont have a price tag so we can make profits out them.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:00 pmIdiot.
Gee Juan that wasnt an extremist response. You do pay for conversations with friends its called a phone.
MORON
June 9th, 2006 at 12:04 pmtroll(s) are fine with Billions in giveaways to the Energy Industry,Pharm. Industry,the Military Industrial Complex etc. but thinks Bert and Ernie and should go it alone. If B&E should go it alone,I am fine with that, as long as we stop the Corp. welfare altogether. Not to mention the recent right wing control (towing the admin. line)of MSM brought on by the FCC loosening of ownership controls(political favors) in order to consolidate media, thus boosting stock prices, profits….. and control.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:07 pmMan these righties are predictable & f’n stupid when it comes to seeing the whole picture!
WAAAHHHHH!!!! We didn’t get the gay marriage ban and the estate tax repealed. WAHHHH!!!!! Let’s kill Sesame Street and NOVA!!!!!!
June 9th, 2006 at 12:08 pmI don’t understand how for the past six years they have rubber-stamped spending trillions of dollars, but when it comes to public broadcasting, we have to slash that of all things?? It’s so vengeful (PBS isn’t conservative enough, apparently) and partisan, it’s sickening.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:08 pmI think this is a sign of desperation. Any cut that they can make now will be spun as a fiscally reckless and irresponsible “new spending” when sanity returns and they are back trying to stop the roll-back of all the damage they’ve done.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:11 pmHouse Republicans vote to slash PBS funding by 23%….
The tried to do this last year and it looks like they're going to try it again this year: On a party-line vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees health and education funding approved the cut to the budget for the Corporation…
June 9th, 2006 at 12:12 pmFirst off John not all trolls are conservative. Second not all conservatives support those giveaways. Finally those who benifited from the deregulation were not all conservative,
June 9th, 2006 at 12:14 pmWhat is good for the masses is bad for Republicans and vise versa.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:19 pmSo, troll, I guess I shouldn’t have to pay for all the “free rides” I disagree with … you know, like a war I don’t support, faith-based initiatives, hand outs to big pharma.
I mean, using your logic, we should only have to pay for the things with which we agree, right?
June 9th, 2006 at 12:22 pmObserver
What a dumb ass statement wiith absolutely no evidence to substantiate it.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:25 pmHow much of the federal budget does NPR, and PBS actually use?
June 9th, 2006 at 12:29 pmThis is WHY, we can’t have stories like this getting out….
off topic, but FYI
Airdate: Friday, June 9, 2006, at 8:30 p.m. on PBS.
(Check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html.)
The electrically-powered car - did auto and oil companies gang up to kill it? This time on NOW.
Did car companies sabotage one of their most fuel efficient and environmentally-friendly products because it stood in the way of big profits? A new documentary by filmmaker Chris Paine charts the promising life and untimely death of the electric car, and lays blame at the door of some powerful suspects. On June 9, NOW sits down with Paine to look under the hood of America’s automotive and oil industries and ask: who really pulled the plug on electric cars, and why? This time on NOW.
——————————————————————————–
June 9th, 2006 at 12:30 pmNote: The NOW website at http://www.pbs.org/now will provide follow-up coverage to the show starting Friday morning, June 9. Features will include a timeline of the electric car’s rise and fall, a closer look at the new hybrids, expert perspectives about modern gas fuel alternatives, and practical tips to conserve fuel.
Unholy,
June 9th, 2006 at 12:31 pmSome of this has been addressed. Military is the purpose of the fed, PBS is not. PBS never saved a life but I bet every one reading this has had a relative who is alive today thanks to pharmaceutical R&D if you fools cant see the difference you really are retarded.
“Retired Republican Soldier still hasn’t figured out that what he’s so pleased happens to liberals, also happens to him.” So if you don’t pay for PBS then I don’t have to? DEAL!
June 9th, 2006 at 12:33 pm4. …Republicans are looking for ways to save taxpayers’ dollars, amid fiscal conservatives’ concerns over the budget deficit.â€
(bringing healthcare and education into this debate….)
Now THAT has go to be the most insidious, ridiculous comment I have read today.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:33 pmSo … the only purpose of the government is to fund the military? What about handouts to faith groups? Should the gov’t fund those as well?
Which can be funded quite easily from the nearly $6 billion in annual profits the drug companies make on their own.
Typical right-wing debating strategy: when all else fails, insult the person.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:38 pmtroll,I am proud of my statement ,Thank You! I like being a troll too. after all”not all trolls are conservative”.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:39 pmWhat I said was about as stupid as your assinine talk of “free rides” for public broadcasting while we just spent 115 million on Iraq in the last few hours. Halliburton fed subpar meals to our wonderful troops and made them drink foul fecal water while accepting ALL the money for their gouging no- bid contracts while not performing.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
Some of this has been addressed. Military is the purpose of the fed, PBS is not. PBS never saved a life but I bet every one reading this has had a relative who is alive today thanks to pharmaceutical R&D if you fools cant see the difference you really are retarded.
Comment by troll
What a dumb ass statement wiith absolutely no evidence to substantiate it.
Comment by troll
Hey I can respond to you by you.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:42 pmNo but military is one of the constitutional purposes.
It depends what they are for.
R&D does not make a profit,
Hey if the shoe fits.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:45 pmHere’s one for you troll;Marilyn Musgrave U.S.(R) Rep has accused her (D) rival of leaving an envelope stuffed with feces on her desk at her district office in Colorado. Sink your tooth into that one!
June 9th, 2006 at 12:46 pmDiet
June 9th, 2006 at 12:48 pmThe difference was that my statement was factual. If not, how so?
Observer
June 9th, 2006 at 12:53 pmIt is childish reasoning to argue that one thing should not be addressed because some other issue has not. Very little would ever get done if that were a legitimate prerequisite.
increase support and then disengage
I’d suggest that we counter with an increase of $115 M with a 10 year plan to disengage PBS from all government support.
This argument will continue as long as their is a Left/Right polorization of the Government/Colture, and though we liberals can fight it each year, perhaps it makes more sense to work toward moving PBS of toward a fully viewer supported corporation.
As I understand it aobut 75% of the expenses are already supported by Gifts, Subsctiptions, etc. Lets make it 100%.
This would allow us, the viewers, subscribers, etc. to choose the board of directories, the policies, etc., and let the people who were not invested in PBS decide which of the standard programming they wanted to watch and indirectly support by purchasing the advertised products.
I’d thus suggest a multi year plan, with more seed money at the start, for launching this subscriber owned network with the board of directors elected andits policies and programs set by us, the viewers now, and in the future, by its subscribers.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:54 pmObserver regarding the feces. Whats the point?
June 9th, 2006 at 12:55 pmWell if you think half facts and opinions make your statments “factual” then by all means live in that world.
Military is the purpose of the fed, PBS is not.
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
In my OPINION PBS would fall into the “promote the general welfare” in the Preamble to the Constitution as to what the purpose of the Fed is.
PBS never saved a life but I bet every one reading this has had a relative who is alive today thanks to pharmaceutical R&D
PBS may have saved a life by teaching a child 911…you don’t know that for a FACT. By the way what are the statistics that show how many people have died from taking pharmaceutical drugs compared to those being saved compared to those who would have died if they didn’t take it. That would be some good FACTS.
June 9th, 2006 at 1:00 pmyou fools cant see the difference you really are retarded.
Comment by troll
Now, now troll, keep it respectable so I won’t have to say anything about your big, fat ugly mama. (_!_)
June 9th, 2006 at 1:12 pmDiet,
To say that PBS falls under “general welfare” is a stretch, while pharmaceutical R&D can easily be defended as falling into that catagory.
Comparring a few kids learning 911 which possibly saved a life or two to the hundreds of millions to possibly billions of lives which have been saved as a result of the work of pharmaceuticals really highlights how retarded the left in America really is.
June 9th, 2006 at 1:32 pmtroll-
June 9th, 2006 at 1:41 pmActually, trying to justify cutting a measley $115 million out of the budget while trying to give the top 1% a $200+ BILLION dollar handout would qualify as retarded, don’t ya think?
Hey Retarded Republican Soldier, how about you don’t have to pay for PBS and I don’t have to pay for your BS war in Iraq?
June 9th, 2006 at 1:43 pmtroll, how about the tens of thousands of kids who got an early start on reading thanks to PBS and then went on to work in the pharma industry?
June 9th, 2006 at 1:45 pm#46
Thanks for making my point. It is your opinion not fact. You stated you spoke in facts when they were your opinions. General welfare also includes educating the citizens…PBS goes in that category in my opinion.
The difference was that my statement was factual. If not, how so?
Comment by troll
June 9th, 2006 at 1:45 pmNo iits not retarded at all. That money belongs to those people.
June 9th, 2006 at 1:45 pm#10: Studies have proven that as television stations have become more and more privatizd, and regulations removed, the amount of airtime given to educational shows (like Sesame Street as you point out) is the first to get cut.
Meanwhile, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in cable news shows offering opinionated and biased “talking head news” shows.
So reality is basically the exact opposite of what YOU are claiming will happen. Sesame Street and shows like it will NOT survive the end of Public Broadcasting and only the biased news shows WILL survive as the corporate media buys them out.
June 9th, 2006 at 1:46 pmBut giving the fed gov permission to take your money because it doesnt think you deservre to keep it is pretty retarded. Because if it can do that to millionaires today it will do the same to the middle class tomorrow.
June 9th, 2006 at 1:50 pmWhy do Republicans hate Big Bird?
June 9th, 2006 at 2:00 pm#31 Troll boy:
Poetry, culture, music, films, never saved a life. Neither do you…so why not erase you all? Still an idiot.
June 9th, 2006 at 2:10 pmActually, it already does that — the bulk of the “tax breaks” handed out by the GOP Congress went to the wealthiest Americans, NOT the middle class. And THAT is the pinnacle of stupidity.
June 9th, 2006 at 2:11 pmI was in a family for more than 26 years who joined Organized Crime that includes very wide scale Political Corruption, International Drug Distribution and wide scale fraud. The Political Corruption part extends from the lower areas or towns and cities all the way up to the Opt of our Federal Government. Make no mistake about this, from what I know in great detail, I feel what’s happening is a move by the criminal element within our Government to silence our ability to get to the truth.
June 9th, 2006 at 2:21 pmMarty–
You keep posting this whole “Huge Organized Crime” thing in thread after thread. Any chance of elaborating?
Either that, or you may want to get a heavier weight foil for your hat …
June 9th, 2006 at 2:29 pmCause hes a nudist from Woodstock CT
June 9th, 2006 at 2:32 pmIgnore the goddamned trolls people. You fall for this shit day after day.
June 9th, 2006 at 2:34 pmJuan
June 9th, 2006 at 2:38 pmRepublicans are not trying to get rid of PBS they are trying to cut funding. They are two different things. Now I know you are a little retarded but even you can distinguish between different things. So why lie as you do. Because you are a nasty liberal and thats what you do.
No the pinnacle of stupidity is the libs who keep electing dems who promise to take away more of your freedom by expanding the fed gov.
The top 1% of income earners pay 33% of all income taxes. I am not rich but I dont think that is fair.
June 9th, 2006 at 2:47 pmLolly is afraid very afraid. Her cult is threatened.
June 9th, 2006 at 2:50 pmHoly crap …
Are you clinically retarded, or do you just act that way on the Internet?
June 9th, 2006 at 2:52 pmYou think liberty is well served by big brother in DC getting bigger? You like the power Bush and the republicans have over your life? Wake up retard.
June 9th, 2006 at 2:59 pmThis should be required watching for everyone:
June 9th, 2006 at 3:09 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sd7TcVH670
troll-
How in the holy hell is funding PBS “big brother” … ? Also, please tell me, what plans do the Dems have that are of the “big brother” variety?
And how is taxing those who make more than the lowest 90% COMBINED at a higher rate unfair? They seem to be doing quite well considering that their wealth has INCREASED over the last five years, while the rest of us have stayed stagnant.
June 9th, 2006 at 3:17 pmYou think liberty is well served by big brother in DC getting bigger?
No but Republicans sure do. Just propose cutting defense funding or limiting spying power and see what they say.
June 9th, 2006 at 3:23 pmForget Sesame Street and NOVA, your kids will be watching the Mattell Toys Chocobot Action Hour!
June 9th, 2006 at 3:28 pmYep, we’ve got millions of tax dollars for fake planted news stories in Iraq and right here in the good ole USA which back our admin. policies but none for NPR or PBS.
June 9th, 2006 at 3:28 pm.
As Tom DeLay made clear, if it’s not bitterly partisan, it doesn’t get funding!
June 9th, 2006 at 3:30 pmThe last bastion of hope for the intelligent voices who counter the administration is losing its funding.
June 9th, 2006 at 3:32 pmBetween this sorry state of affairs and Specter willing to surrender the civil liberties of Americans to Bush&Co, this is a sad day.
Every so often this comes up, so far, PBS has made it through.
And Republican Soldier:
Don’t get too pissy about the news on PBS, you have FOX. PBS is the antonym to FOX. All other news is centrist, really, both sides complian about the MSM being not what they want it to be, which cancells each other out. I mean which is it, here at TP I would get clobbered for calling the MSM moderate, as here, the MSM is a corporate whore. Now go to conservative sites, they say its the liberal media. So which is it? I say more toward center.
June 9th, 2006 at 4:09 pmYou obviously have no issue because you share their politics and agenda but for those who dont we are being forced to subsidize these same. If PBS had a conservative bent would you be as adamant about its public funding? You probably dont listen to the Rush L show how would you like to have to pay for it?
I hesitate to answer for fear of muddying the waters here but for the sake of the debate as an example the right to property is seriously threatened by the socialist leanings of the left.
This “combined” information is dubious. Graduated income tax is a form of discrimination. In addition equal protection questions arise. As much as it would hurt me a flat tax would be a more just means of taxation.
How well they do or dont do is not our business. A fair tax code is.
June 9th, 2006 at 4:12 pmMaybe Rebub Soldier is mad because during FOX’s commercial breaks, PBS is still broadcasting their news, thus getting more actual air time per hour.
June 9th, 2006 at 4:12 pmtroll–
You’re right: PBS does share my beliefs — that news and information should use fact and show both sides of an issue as much as possible. I know those are foreign concepts to those on the right.
Also, our government funds countless things with which I don’t agree — should I demand that my tax money only be used for those purposes?
Maybe that’s the solution — everyone in America tells the government where it can spend the money he or she pays in taxes. Don’t like PBS? Then your money doesn’t go there. Don’t like the war in Iraq? Don’t have to pay for it.
See … we CAN find solutions!
June 9th, 2006 at 4:27 pmSome things are a necessity. For others have at it.
June 9th, 2006 at 5:01 pmI am against the goverment funding anything to do with the Arts or Entertainment. I was against LONG before FNC or even CNN, but today it makes even less sense for the goverment to fund it. If you can’t find what you want on cable then you can start your own channel, Al Gore will even let you test drive your idea. To me it’s as if we were to still fund construction of covered wagons. Damn good product for the time, can’t argue that people can learn from constucting them, but when do you take the training wheels off the bike and make the company ride on their own?
June 9th, 2006 at 5:04 pmthe problem is that we do not agree what should be funded. I would rather
June 9th, 2006 at 5:49 pmmy taxes fun Nova, and NOT fund a war in Iraq for the American obligarchs.
The reason the rightards fight funding of PBS is that PBS is the only entity on the airwaves that expose the right wings hypocracy and whoreness.
Troll, like we should support the Nazi propaganda Ministry at Faux news and its CNN wannabe instead. LOL!
June 9th, 2006 at 7:09 pmBush appointees have been working from inside the CPB to remove as much of anything they view as contrary to the Republican agenda, citing ‘liberal bias’, while promoting their own biased views. But, as is typical of most Bush appointees, they have tainted backrounds, which when they are exposed tend to hamper their meddling ways. Not that they lose their jobs, oh MY no, they are just watched a little closer. They are trying to ’starve’ PBS to death. Or turn it into the “Privatized Broadcasting System” instead. They are just pissed that they cannot control all of the programming. And what they can’t control, they try to destroy.
June 10th, 2006 at 1:31 amhey dont look now but the phone records of the independent press are being collected with national security letters seems like cheneys topsecret stamp cant work fast enough
June 11th, 2006 at 5:06 pmtime to invade the rights blog sites I just left one and there were no trolls at all and no ugly nonintelligent disruptive comments being made .KnoW any good right wing blogs other than redstate.com?
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