NPR and PBS dodge another bullet

[irishgrl]

I received this encouraging email today:
Dear MoveOn member,
In an unexpected move yesterday afternoon, the House of Representatives approved a measure to restore $100 million of funding for NPR, PBS and local public stations.1 Republican leaders were proposing to slash $200 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but you helped stop them.

Everyone said it was impossible to reverse any of the House cuts with Republicans in control. Yesterday's Washington Post described the divide between Democrats and Republicans like this:


"[O]n Capitol Hill, it's hard to find a Republican with anything nice to say about National Public Radio or the Public Broadcasting Service. Instead, they denounce them as liberal and elitist, when they bother to talk about them at all."2

Public broadcasting shouldn't divide Republicans and Democrats. More Americans trust NPR and PBS for balanced news and children's programming than any commercial network.3 Yet many Republicans have been intent on either gagging or starving public broadcasting.

So why did 87 Republicans break with the majority of their party and vote to restore the funding? In large part, because over 1 million of you signed the petition calling on Congress to reverse course. And over 40,000 of you made phone calls to your elected representatives. There was a surge of public outrage that couldn't be ignored. This victory was possible because we were joined by Free Press, Common Cause and strong allies in the House—Representatives Markey, Obey, Lowey, Dingell, Hinchey, Watson, Schakowsky, Blumenauer, Eshoo, Slaughter, and Leach, a brave Republican.

Despite this incredible progress, the House Republicans did manage to cut over $100 million, including funding for children's programming like "Sesame Street." We'll take our fight to the Senate when it considers the budget later this summer. But yesterday's vote makes it much more likely we can restore every last cent for NPR and PBS by acting together.

Yesterday also brought darker news in the fight for public broadcasting. The Republican-dominated board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) hired a former Republican National Committee chair as the next president, injecting partisanship into the very organization designed to shield public broadcasting from political meddling.4 This is only the latest effort by White House ally and CPB board chair Kenneth Tomlinson to remake public broadcasting as a partisan mouthpiece. To save NPR and PBS, we'll need to take on Tomlinson, but today we showed that the public can and will defend public broadcasting from partisan attack.

For now, we have a lot to be thankful for. Our kids can keep learning from PBS' children's programming. We can keep enjoying public broadcasting's in-depth, trustworthy news and cultural offerings. Most of all, we can be thankful for the ability of ordinary people to band together and do extraordinary things.

Thank you, for all you do,

–Noah, Joan, Marika, Wes and the MoveOn.org Team
Friday, June 24th, 2005

Sources:
1. "House votes to keep most PBS funding intact," USA Today, June 23, 2005
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...-funding_x.htm

2. "Opponents On Different Wavelengths," Washington Post, June 23, 2005
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...062202294.html

3. "CPB's 'Secrets and Lies': Why the CPB Board Hid its Polls Revealing Broad Public Support for PBS and NPR," Center for Digital Democracy, April 27, 2005
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=746

4. "Public Broadcasting Chief Is Named, Raising Concerns," New York Times, June 24, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/po...broadcast.html

5. Roll Call Vote in House of Representatives (An "aye" vote is the right vote.)
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll305.xml

[seeker007nmss]

What did they think? You can't pick on Mr. Rogers and Big Bird. (yes, I know it's more than that)

[DrummerDeanna]

Amusingly enough they totally tried to pick on Big Bird - on C-SPAN yesterday some Republican woman had a chart which read, "Big Bird is a billionaire" It was RIDICULOUS!!!

The Republicans who were FOR the cuts had their info ALL wrong - and they were just sunk - thank goodness. Let me just add that Lousie Slaughter just kicks ass.

And yeah - still some work to be done - especially with the appointment by Tomlinson

[irishgrl]

Originally Posted by DrummerDeanna

Amusingly enough they totally tried to pick on Big Bird - on C-SPAN yesterday some Republican woman had a chart which read, "Big Bird is a billionaire" It was RIDICULOUS!!!

The Republicans who were FOR the cuts had their info ALL wrong - and they were just sunk - thank goodness. Let me just add that Lousie Slaughter just kicks ass.

And yeah - still some work to be done - especially with the appointment by Tomlinson

how the HELL did Tomlinson get put on that Board? That is the Fox guarding the Henhouse all right......................

[DrummerDeanna]

Originally Posted by irishgrl

how the HELL did Tomlinson get put on that Board? That is the Fox guarding the Henhouse all right......................

That is a damn good question...one I don't have an answer to...it's sucks though