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Court reaffirms CPB's independence

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umfan said:
You keep restating the same thing as if CPB is some sacrosanct entity that is somehow shielded from its funding being removed.
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It was created for reasons stated in the public broadcasting act, and each of those ten reasons begins with the words "it is in the public interest." So there was a lot of thought given to the writing of that bill and the establishment of CPB. It wasn't based on political agenda. It was based on public service. I guess that's a pretty naive idea today. But broadcasters are supposed to operate in the public interest, convenience, and necessity. That hasn't changed.

umfan said:
Yes, once funding is terminated that would leave the question of if the law that enabled CPB needed to be repealed or not. That's down the road.
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If they want to repeal or amend the law, the time to do it is now. They could simply insert a line that no federal funding go to NPR or PBS. That would be a lot easier and less painful for the states than eliminating CPB. On average, every state will lose about $12 million in federal funding if this goes through. In the states that own public radio & TV stations, that's a big chunk of change. Places like Louisiana and Georgia will have to address that loss. That will mean local people will lose their jobs, and the stations will be more reliant on national programming from NPR & PBS.

umfan said:
In such an instance, a very minimal appropriation might be made to keep a single nominal administrator in place while the assets of the entity are liquidated or it's converted to a traditional non-profit entity.
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The way they're handling this, they're just pulling the plug without any concern for what happens next. That's not the way Reagan handled it in 1983. His administration amended the law that exists today. My view is if this happens, the public radio system itself will come up with a replacement. They worked together with the Reagan admin in 83, and they know what's needed to keep the system going.
 
umfan said:
Once the recission is made, that can be considered, but they won't stop the process.
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My take on the rescission process is it's not as inevitable as you think. It passed the house by two votes and those two votes flipped at the last minute. One of them, Don Bacon of Nebraska. knows what this will mean for his home state. He wouldn't have flipped if he thought it was inevitable. Based on that, I expect the bill to die in the senate. By passing it in the house, that satisfied the white house. They're now pre-occupied with other bigger issues. There's a time limit on this bill, and the clock is ticking while a lot of people are out on vacation. In any case, it's a long way off, and in the meantime, radio stations are operating and people are being informed.
 
TheBigA said:
My take on the rescission process is it's not as inevitable as you think. It passed the house by two votes and those two votes flipped at the last minute. One of them, Don Bacon of Nebraska. knows what this will mean for his home state. He wouldn't have flipped if he thought it was inevitable. Based on that, I expect the bill to die in the senate. By passing it in the house, that satisfied the white house. They're now pre-occupied with other bigger issues. There's a time limit on this bill, and the clock is ticking while a lot of people are out on vacation. In any case, it's a long way off, and in the meantime, radio stations are operating and people are being informed.
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It has a hard 45 day deadline to be acted upon. There will be a vote one way or the other before that expires. I'm certain of that.

My guess is it's 50-50 with the VP casting the tie-breaking vote. The GOP has too much invested in legitimizing what DOGE has done to let this fail.

I could be proven wrong. I intend to refrain from further comment on this topic until the vote happens.
 
umfan said:
My guess is it's 50-50 with the VP casting the tie-breaking vote. The GOP has too much invested in legitimizing what DOGE has done to let this fail.
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It will definitely be close. Presuming the Democrat Senators all vote "nay" and are joined by the two independents in doing so, it would only take three Republican Senators to also vote "nay" and force the tie-breaker by Vance.

What the GOP worries about, of course, is that four of their Senators will vote "nay".

umfan said:
I could be proven wrong.
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Wait a minute ... is this Dennis Miller? :p
 
TheBigA said:
Yet at the same time, we have an administration that is challenging the existence of NPR because they say it provides "biased" news. They're going after its funding, its tax-exempt status, and its usage of the NCE band. Meanwhile VCY is using its religious status to push far right political viewpoints, even telling its listeners who to vote for.
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But does VCY get government aid or financing? I think the issue with some of the MAGA group is that, in their opinions, NPR leans towards Democrats, the left, progressive or whatever derogatory term they are preferring today and NPR is getting government money.
 
TheBigA said:
Are they a tax-exempt organization? Then yes, they receive government aid.
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Then the Red Cross and the Kiwanis Club get government aid.

That is kind of a moot point, however. The main advantage of being a non-profit is not avoidance of Federal taxes which they would not pay anyway as they have no profit. The advantage is in savings on things like local real estate and sales taxes and the like as well as, if properly organized, limited liability of the staff and management.

What is not widely understood is that companies don't pay income tax if they have no profit. While individuals pay a percentage of total income, companies only pay on profits. Non-commercial stations, like all non-profits, are chartered to have no shareholders / owners so there is nobody to distribute excess funds to; any superavit goes to future expenses as a reserve .
 
davideduardo said:
But does VCY get government aid or financing? I think the issue with some of the MAGA group is that, in their opinions, NPR leans towards Democrats, the left, progressive or whatever derogatory term they are preferring today and NPR is getting government money.
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You make a small but legitimate point. While NPR touts itself as being unbiased (and I, as a listener and supporter, agree with them), there is plenty of polling data to show that, since at least 2010, Republicans have viewed the network as a mouthpiece for the Democrats. Since I began seeing this in polling around 2010, I have to assume that the current White House occupant, while fanning the flames, didn't start this fire.

My suspicion is that if there is any one person who started the attacks on public radio that led to the current polarization on the matter, it has to be the late Rush Limbaugh. I very well remember him railing against the network for its "biased coverage" when I was a regular listener of his back in the 1990s. (Yes, I'm a person who has changed his views on many subjects as he learns more.) We are in a sad place right now when it comes to the question of whether a particular news source is biased (it now depends upon the views of the person you ask), and I don't see an easy or quick way out of this hole we've created for ourselves.
 
ted chittenden said:
You make a small but legitimate point. While NPR touts itself as being unbiased (and I, as a listener and supporter, agree with them), there is plenty of polling data to show that, since at least 2010, Republicans have viewed the network as a mouthpiece for the Democrats.
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They also claim the issue is government funding. Yet they can't demonstrate if any federal funds are in fact spent on news. Both NPR and the member stations say that federal funding is less than 10% of their revenue. So it's very possible that if an accounting was done, it would show no federal funding is used in news coverage. As I've said, congress has the power to direct its funding so that it only goes to intended places. They could amend the law to say no federal funds can be used for news. But that's not what they're doing here.
 
TheBigA said:
They also claim the issue is government funding. Yet they can't demonstrate if any federal funds are in fact spent on news. Both NPR and the member stations say that federal funding is less than 10% of their revenue. So it's very possible that if an accounting was done, it would show no federal funding is used in news coverage. As I've said, congress has the power to direct its funding so that it only goes to intended places. They could amend the law to say no federal funds can be used for news. But that's not what they're doing here.
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NPR's funding from CPB is less than 10 percent. For big stations, CPB funding is like 5 to 10 percent or so of their annual funding.. for medium sized stations is 25 or so percent.. for small, rural stations its better than 50 percent.
 
TheBigA said:
CPB continues to make grants to local radio stations, as the threat of defunding continues. This grant was to a radio station in North Carolina for recovery coverage from Hurricane Helene.

current.org

BPR receives CPB grant to fund full-time reporter covering Hurricane Helene recovery

Laura Hackett, a local government reporter at BPR who has followed the impacts of the hurricane since it hit, will focus on recovery reporting for 18 months.
current.org current.org
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And I have stated that this station was the only news source for a lot of people who were without power, cable or Internet.
 
CBS Evening News did a story on a public radio station in Louisiana that stands to lose government funding if the claw-back of CPB funding happens:

www.insideradio.com

CBS Report Shines Light On Louisiana Station Facing A Loss Of Funding.

Scores of public radio stations across America are feeling the financial heat as President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress continue to take aim at the federal underwriting that
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com

Contrary to the rescission letter, the clawback won't defund NPR & PBS. It will defund local radio & TV stations.

In the meantime, more local stations have joined NPR's lawsuit against the president's EO:

www.insideradio.com

NPR Lawsuit Backed By 29 Public Stations And 23 States.

In support of the lawsuit brought by National Public Radio and three of its Colorado-based member stations against President Trump and federal agencies over an executive order that they argue
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com
 
The Louisiana station, per the story I read does not say the news department will go away or that the station will shut down. At the least the article seems to imply if that $160,000 of the $1 million budget is cut they'll stop doing local/regional news. I contend nothing would change except for pushing for more donations/underwriting. Granted 15% is a big hit but you can sustain what you have if you work smart.
 
b-turner said:
Granted 15% is a big hit but you can sustain what you have if you work smart.
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Absolutely, but we've already seen what cuts that size have done to news at local commercial radio. It didn't happen all at once. It was a process that happened over a number of years. Advertising isn't enough to support the kinds of things people want from the radio. That kind of local news coverage isn't being replaced by Spotify or Sirius or Pandora. The money has to come from somewhere. This kind of funding makes that local coverage possible. These radio stations aren't doing this for profit or to improve stock price. It's for public service.

All I'm saying is the narrative has been focused on "biased NPR news," and that's not really what the story is. Reporters in Louisiana aren't the same as national reporters in Washington. Someone needs to present the local radio story in this.
 
To be objective, we need to put these CPB cuts in context. They are not the only government programs being cut. Pretty much everything is on the chopping block. The various national endowments have been cut. They are looking to shut down the Department of Education. Like CPB, one of the things DOE does is distribute federal money to the states. One of those states is Louisiana, and one of those institutions is LSU, owner of this radio station. So $100K is being cut in CPB money. But how much is being cut from LSU? After those cuts, can the university continue to sustain a radio station at the level it was at previously? That's what we're talking about here. It's not just CPB funding that's at stake.
 
K.M. Richards said:
Don't tell us, Chimp. Tell your Congressmember and Senators.
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They're MAGAts, although one of the senators is all the time criticizing Trump until he has to actually vote.

I think the congressman representing the area where a lot of the damage was is viewed positively and I can't remember if he does, but I would think he'd support whatever help BPR could get.
 
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