Senate Bill to Defund NPR

[TheBigA]

The bill is being pushed by Louisiana Senator Kennedy.

Bill To End Public Radio And TV Funding Gets Support In Senate.

Foreshadowing what may be one of many fights in the coming year in Washington, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) has introduced a bill that would end taxpayer funding to public radio

www.insideradio.com

The state of Louisiana received $2,467,475 from CPB. That's about 10% of its budget. I guess he feels his state can afford to operate its state owned radio & TV network without that money. The citizens of Louisiana pay $8 million in state tax dollars for its public broadcasting authority.

“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting refuses to provide Louisianians and Americans with fair, unbiased content,” Kennedy says. “It wastes taxpayer dollars on slanted coverage to advance a leftist political agenda.”

He's making that up. He says CPB "refuses to provide fair, unbiased content." At no time, did anyone at CPB "refuse" to do anything. They've all been co-operative with all requests from congress. The majority of the money CPB distributes goes to local stations and local states like Louisiana. Very little of it goes to news. TV gets a larger portion of CPB money, and PBS has only one news program. But the senator doesn't care.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has already said that she intends to make public media part of her focus as she leads a new House subcommittee devoted to ending what it considers to be wasteful spending. Taylor Greene said in an interview last month that NPR airs “nothing but Democrat propaganda.”

The state of Georgia is another red state that operates a state public broadcasting authority that receives $3.8 million in CPB money. Rep. Green will cost her own state and her constituents money because the state will have to pick up the cost of their system without federal money.

 

[gr8oldies]

The bill is being pushed by Louisiana Senator Kennedy.

Bill To End Public Radio And TV Funding Gets Support In Senate.

Foreshadowing what may be one of many fights in the coming year in Washington, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) has introduced a bill that would end taxpayer funding to public radio

www.insideradio.com

The state of Louisiana received $2,467,475 from CPB. That's about 10% of its budget. I guess he feels his state can afford to operate its state owned radio & TV network without that money. The citizens of Louisiana pay $8 million in state tax dollars for its public broadcasting authority.



He's making that up. He says CPB "refuses to provide fair, unbiased content." At no time, did anyone at CPB "refuse" to do anything. They've all been co-operative with all requests from congress. The majority of the money CPB distributes goes to local stations and local states like Louisiana. Very little of it goes to news. TV gets a larger portion of CPB money, and PBS has only one news program. But the senator doesn't care.



The state of Georgia is another red state that operates a state public broadcasting authority that receives $3.8 million in CPB money. Rep. Green will cost her own state and her constituents money because the state will have to pick up the cost of their system without federal money.

"There shall be no news that does not praise and worship Donald Trump and the state Republican supermajority" per the guy with the fake Mr. Haney accent. I guess the state public networks get sold to religious broadcasters?

 

[TheBigA]

I guess the state public networks get sold to religious broadcasters?

They should sell it or shut it down before they lose the federal funding. I don't think they realize what they're doing.

It would seem to me that if the state-owned network is broadcasting democrat propaganda that the republicans in the state government would know. It's their own state that will lose this money. Has anyone told the governor that his delegation is cutting funding to his state? We could save the taxpayers a lot of money if we stopped sending all these red states money for things they don't like, such as health care, education, and infrastructure.

 

[radiofan2023]

This will once again be a losing proposition once it actually comes to voting on it, as it has been voted on before and they've never actually completely cut funding for CPB. When push comes to shove, they ALWAYS back down because as others have mentioned, they know it would/could cost people jobs in their home states. Also, John Kennedy went to Oxford for his BCL (Master's in Law) and I doubt he talked the same way he does now when he was there.

Is there a lobbying group specifically for public/noncommercial stations or is their lobbying done by NAB?

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Here we go again! However everytime we fact checked these allegations about funding CPB we end up running in a circle such as this when the statewide NPR affiliate West Virginia Public Broadcasting faced political interference when one of their former staff member got fired and it became about the Governor of that state. Also there has been false allegations directed at kids shows on PBS and we had to dig at specific segments like Newshour, Frontline, NPR News and local editions as factors here. Consider another thing such as AP and Reuters did the reporting and NPR and PBS News hour reposted articles from the AP and Reuters for national content.

Firebrand Congresswoman Greene Ready To Take On NPR.

Funding for National Public Radio has long been a favorite target of House Republicans, and the incoming Congress under President-elect Trump is already rattling its proverbial saber. Rep. Marjorie Taylor

www.insideradio.com

It's all in repeat given that public media had to reposition itself from educational broadcasting to best in journalism in the past two decades.

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/13/1153590012/west-virginia-public-journalist-dismissed-wvpb-political-interference

Late last fall, West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Amelia Ferrell Knisely reported one story after another about allegations that people with disabilities were abused in facilities run by the state.

The state agency Knisely was covering demanded that one of her key stories be fully retracted. While her coverage remains on West Virginia Public Broadcasting's website, Knisely is gone. She says she was told the decision came from the station's chief executive.

Interviews with 20 people with direct knowledge of events at West Virginia Public Broadcasting indicate Knisely's involuntary departure from her position as a part-time reporter was not an aberration but part of a years-long pattern of mounting pressure on the station from Gov. Jim Justice's administration and some state legislators.

 

[TheBigA]

Is there a lobbying group specifically for public/noncommercial stations or is their lobbying done by NAB?

NPR has its own governmental affairs department that lobbies for public radio stations. The stations pay for it as part of their membership. There are some independent lobby groups as well.

CPB is prohibited from lobbying congress on its own behalf.

I'm sure that before any votes happen, each rep and each senator will have a detail rundown of how much money their state will lose as a result of this bill. And I can tell you that this bill would hurt red states disproportionately compared to blue states.

I can easily see a group of blue state public radio companies banding together to help replace federal funding for NPR. With NO money going to the states who voted to defund. Those states will be stuck filling hours of programming that is currently running NPR.

 

[radiofan2023]

NPR has its own governmental affairs department that lobbies for public radio stations. There are some independent lobby groups as well.

CPB is prohibited from lobbying congress on its own behalf.

Thanks for explaining

 

[TheBigA]

A few states have already sold their local public broadcasting authorities to community groups. Chris Christie did it when he was governor of NJ. The reason NJ set up its own system was because the main TV stations were either in NYC or Philadelphia. So Christie sold the NJ Public Broadcasting Authority to WNET and WHYY, once again taking away local TV from NJ origination.

 

[kevtronics]

A few states have already sold their local public broadcasting authorities to community groups. Chris Christie did it when he was governor of NJ. The reason NJ set up its own system was because the main TV stations were either in NYC or Philadelphia. So Christie sold the NJ Public Broadcasting Authority to WNET and WHYY, once again taking away local TV from NJ origination.

Rudy Giuliani did the same thing with WNYC, saying that NYC shouldn't have its own public radio and TV stations. The AM and FM stations became an independent organization, while WNYC-TV was sold to a commercial operator. After a failed attempt at a sports/business news format, Bud Paxson bought it and turned it into Pax TV, a mix of old sitcom reruns, informercials, and televangelists.

 

[Deus Ex Machiato]

"There shall be no news that does not praise and worship Donald Trump and the state Republican supermajority" per the guy with the fake Mr. Haney accent.

You joke, but Newsmax has just barred their hosts from criticizing Trump pick Pete Hegseth, after the President-elect was "displeased" that one of them had less than positive things to say about the nominee.

Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill

That said, "Defund NPR" has been a rallying cry on the right for a long time, despite the fact that both NPR and PBS are largely funded by donations, and the entire operating cost for public media for a year is at best a few pennies per taxpayer.

 

[TheBigA]

The last time congress launched one of these defund campaigns, some people said they were going after Big Bird.

Big Bird Parody Account Announced He's Running For Congress And Coming For Ted Cruz's Neck

The Big Bird for Senate parody campaign popped up after Cruz attacked the beloved character's real Twitter account for posting about getting vaccinated.

newsone.com

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

The last time congress launched one of these defund campaigns, some people said they were going after Big Bird.

Big Bird Parody Account Announced He's Running For Congress And Coming For Ted Cruz's Neck

The Big Bird for Senate parody campaign popped up after Cruz attacked the beloved character's real Twitter account for posting about getting vaccinated.

newsone.com

We been on this road before when there's calls for CPB to be defunded. We mentioned on that one that Sesame Street is really owned by Sesame Workshop and their broadcasts rights on WB's max. Also when that rant was made Sesame Street did a PSA for States with a vaccine mandate in 2021 when that rant was made.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Rudy Giuliani did the same thing with WNYC, saying that NYC shouldn't have its own public radio and TV stations. The AM and FM stations became an independent organization, while WNYC-TV was sold to a commercial operator. After a failed attempt at a sports/business news format, Bud Paxson bought it and turned it into Pax TV, a mix of old sitcom reruns, informercials, and televangelists.

NYC still has its own public radio and TV stations. They are not WNYC but WNYE and WNYE-TV. They belonged to the city's Department of Education until 2004 when they were transferred to the city after Giuliani was gone.

 

[TheBigA]

The point is if government funding of CPB and public broadcasting goes away, it won't hurt New York, NJ, CT, MA, or other northeastern blue states. But it will hurt Georgia, West Virginia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Iowa, and many other red states who depend on that federal money for their state-owned educational broadcasting networks. They will lose money twice: Once from CPB, and then from the shuttering of the Education department.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

its interesting that many of the people who wanna defund this are in states that need the money the most. if fox was publicly funded, they wouldne be crying to defund it, theyd be asking for more money

 

[TheBigA]

its interesting that many of the people who wanna defund this are in states that need the money the most.

Your state is among the top 5 states in terms of receiving federal money:

In 2021, Montana led the states with the highest proportion of federal funding to the overall budget at 31.8%, followed by New Mexico (30.7%), Kentucky (30.1%), Louisiana (29.8%), and Alaska (29.0%).

What do those states have in common? Kennedy should know better than to cut federal funding to his state. Before he was senator, he was the state treasurer for Louisiana, and head of the revenue department before that. He's spent 20 years receiving federal funding. Now he's about to shut it down.

 

[kevtronics]

Kennedy should know better than to cut federal funding to his state. Before he was senator, he was the state treasurer for Louisiana, and head of the revenue department before that. He's spent 20 years receiving federal funding. Now he's about to shut it down.

"Government is full of waste and corruption. Elect me and I'll prove it!"

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Your state is among the top 5 states in terms of receiving federal money:



What do those states have in common? Kennedy should know better than to cut federal funding to his state. Before he was senator, he was the state treasurer for Louisiana, and head of the revenue department before that. He's spent 20 years receiving federal funding. Now he's about to shut it down.

We use to even get state money and the governor has veto'd that. If it were up to some in this station, the small stations would be nothing be repeaters with EAS.. lolol

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

The point is if government funding of CPB and public broadcasting goes away, it won't hurt New York, NJ, CT, MA, or other northeastern blue states. But it will hurt Georgia, West Virginia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Iowa, and many other red states who depend on that federal money for their state-owned educational broadcasting networks. They will lose money twice: Once from CPB, and then from the shuttering of the Education department.

The States That Are Most Reliant on Federal Aid

MoneyGeek’s analysis identified the states most reliant on federal funding and found an intriguing correlation between dependency and political leaning.

www.moneygeek.com

Which states rely the most on federal aid? | USAFacts

A fifth of state and local government revenues come from federal funding.

usafacts.org

Most & Least Federally Dependent States in 2024

Most & Least Federally Dependent States in 2024

wallethub.com

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/most-and-least-federally-dependent-us-states-135622345.html

Yes thats the one on states most dependent on federal funding and its by per capita. The one that gets targeted a lot on who gets federal funding is California. Everytime we fact check this one California is one of the least dependent on the Federal funding per capita. Its ranked within the bottom 10 states for dependent on federal funding per capita.

 

[KilowattKat]

I looked at the KPBS-TV schedule, and I could not find one single program that has an obvious Liberal bias to it. The only justification for eliminating CPB funding would be to slash the federal budget. I see a big battle with this one, but with a Trump led house and senate...we could see it actually happen. 😳