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Arkansas ending PBS programming next year

KilowattKat said:
Well, like the PBS schedule, I don't see any obvious left wing programming.
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The whole basis for this is the president's opinion. His opinion was taken as gospel truth, and because he said it, the congress voted to rescind money to their home states that has created this problem for these red state PBS affiliates. CPB was never allowed to testify to congress. They just cut funding because the president said so. Imagine if Biden or Obama tried cutting money to the states. Somebody would have objected.

KilowattKat said:
According to this article, the reason for dumping PBS, is strictly financial, and it has to be done in order to continue public television in Arkansas....
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That's what they say, and you believe them. They sound very believable. Yet other states have figured out how to make it work.

Everyone on that board was appointed by the governor, and the governor used to be the president's press secretary. So she believes him.

The real question is why didn't anyone try to stop congress from rescinding their local money? Why would they just let it happen?
 
I wonder if some of this isn't a negotiating tactic to try to drive the cost of PBS membership down. From the article that the OP posted:

The eight-member Arkansas Educational Television Commission, made up entirely of appointees of the governor, announced in a news release Thursday that it planned to disaffiliate from PBS effective July 1, citing annual membership dues of about US$2.5 million it described as “not feasible.” The release also cited the unexpected loss of about that same amount of federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was targeted for closure earlier this year and defunded by Congress.
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They may be looking at the reaction in Alabama where a similar move was tried and later reversed after public blowback.

The current governor of Arkansas doesn't seem to be the type to look for a cover story to justify implementation of an ideologically-driven decision. She would do it unapologetically and in an obvious manner.
 
TheBigA said:
As I said last summer when the rescission happened, this funding cut will hurt red states more than blue states. No state is redder than Arkansas. So this isn't much of a surprise.

It'll be interesting to see how they deal with this. Obviously a political decision, made by the governor. It'll be hard to find comparable programming for less than what they paid PBS. Whatever they get, it won't satisfy the current member base. I expect the station's members to sue. I don't know what percentage of the budget comes from members. It's usually around 40%. If all that money goes away, they'll be in a really tough situation. The state won't want to increase funding. At some point, the state might want to offload the whole system, because it's not something repubs are usually interested in.
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I have no idea how my home state of West Virginia is going to handle this, but I am sure the results will not be good. I regularly share PBS programs with my two granddaughters (and one on the way). What now?
 
TheBigA said:
The whole basis for this is the president's opinion. His opinion was taken as gospel truth, and because he said it, the congress voted to rescind money to their home states that has created this problem for these red state PBS affiliates. CPB was never allowed to testify to congress. They just cut funding because the president said so. Imagine if Biden or Obama tried cutting money to the states. Somebody would have objected.



That's what they say, and you believe them. They sound very believable. Yet other states have figured out how to make it work.

Everyone on that board was appointed by the governor, and the governor used to be the president's press secretary. So she believes him.

The real question is why didn't anyone try to stop congress from rescinding their local money? Why would they just let it happen?
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We have two Trump sycophants in Shelly Moore Capito and Jim Justice (who owes millions in back taxes via his many coal properties and the Greenbrier Resort). They are spineless concerning Trump, At least in this matter.
 
Greg Goodfellow said:
We have two Trump sycophants in Shelly Moore Capito and Jim Justice (who owes millions in back taxes via his many coal properties and the Greenbrier Resort). They are spineless concerning Trump, At least in this matter.
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If West Virginia Public Television lost PBS, most of the major populations centers of the state could get PBS programming from neighboring states (Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, DC, and Virginia). Cities such as Huntington, Parkersburg, Wheeling, Morgantown, and Martinsburg could pick it up OTA, and KET (WKAS Ashland) could easily be received at the head end of Charleston's cable. Beckley and Bluefield could probably get WBRA Roanoke at least on cable (OTA would be tough given the terrain). Clarksburg would probably have to rely on WQED via cable.
 
TheBigA said:
The whole basis for this is the president's opinion. His opinion was taken as gospel truth, and because he said it, the congress voted to rescind money to their home states that has created this problem for these red state PBS affiliates. CPB was never allowed to testify to congress. They just cut funding because the president said so. Imagine if Biden or Obama tried cutting money to the states. Somebody would have objected.



That's what they say, and you believe them. They sound very believable. Yet other states have figured out how to make it work.

Everyone on that board was appointed by the governor, and the governor used to be the president's press secretary. So she believes him.

The real question is why didn't anyone try to stop congress from rescinding their local money? Why would they just let it happen?
Click to expand...
Well we had the GM's from the large market affiliates and the CEOs of PBS and NPR speak up to stop congress from the recessions but that happened anyway. How that work for statewide affiliates we will find out with this one and there has to be viewers fighting this decision because of the access to good journalism that's the issue here when it came to the CPB funding its about that.
 
The reason we have representative and senators is because they are supposed to represent the people of their states in Washington and bring federal tax money back to the states. That didn't happen here. Instead, the reps and senators of Arkansas voted to take away $2 million from their own state's public broadcasting authority. That's why they're forced to make this decision. Instead of looking out for their home state, they instead did whatever the president told them. Who do they represent? This is a complete failure of the representatives to do the job for which they were elected.
 
TheBigA said:
The reason we have representative and senators is because they are supposed to represent the people of their states in Washington and bring federal tax money back to the states. That didn't happen here. Instead, the reps and senators of Arkansas voted to take away $2 million from their own state's public broadcasting authority. That's why they're forced to make this decision. Instead of looking out for their home state, they instead did whatever the president told them. Who do they represent? This is a complete failure of the representatives to do the job for which they were elected.
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True too and the CEO’s of PBS and NPR sued the White House over this very thing we are in now. We keep mentioning how essential Public Media is to reliable Journalism. But it devolved into controlling the White House press pool and Chairman Carr going after the license of affiliates.
 
Mark Roberts said:
Another state that's strongly Republican-dominated, Iowa, is sticking with PBS for its public television network. Thread:
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I'm really not surprised about this. The PBS audience is fiercely loyal, and they will be able to make up the $2 million loss easily. Arkansas could do it as well if they had the independence to do so. Perhaps the Arkansas situation will change before June.
 
Let me add that it wouldn't surprise me if there was a class action lawsuit against the Arkansas Public Broadcasting Authority for cancelling PBS. The members pay for PBS programming on the station. It's not paid for with taxpayer money. Stations primarily fundraise during prime time. Their prime time programming comes from PBS. CPB doesn't intend its community service grant to be spent on PBS. It's for local usage. Thus the name. The CPB money the station receives is based on the local fundraising the station does with its members. So the CPB money that was cut was based on membership dollars raised during PBS programming. Of course without that programming, they will raise a lot less money, because the people want to watch PBS. They don't care, because the new programming will cost less. But it's not what the members paid for. In some stations, the foundation is separate from the station. But in Arkansas, the foundation, funded by members, is also owned by the state government. So the foundation can't sue. That's why the members have to do a class action.
 
IM42A said:
If West Virginia Public Television lost PBS, most of the major populations centers of the state could get PBS programming from neighboring states (Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, DC, and Virginia). Cities such as Huntington, Parkersburg, Wheeling, Morgantown, and Martinsburg could pick it up OTA, and KET (WKAS Ashland) could easily be received at the head end of Charleston's cable. Beckley and Bluefield could probably get WBRA Roanoke at least on cable (OTA would be tough given the terrain). Clarksburg would probably have to rely on WQED via cable.
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Fortunately, we receive WOUC via Dish, so we will be okay unless Ohio University pulls the plug.
 
Here's a very well thought out opinion piece about Arkansas's disaffiliation from PBS:

current.org

Opinion: Disaffiliating Arkansas’ public TV network from PBS is an ideological move

Arkansas’ Republican congressional delegation voted to put Arkansas PBS’ head on the chopping block. The network's leaders have now wielded the axe.
current.org current.org

He's exactly right. People watch programs, not ideologies. They're not going to blindly donate money to this new TV network just because it used to carry their favorite shows. When those shows go away, so will their money. The state will be looking at bigger problems down the road. It was all caused by their politicians defunding CPB.
 
True and an interesting analogy was what if a commercial TV station removed their affiliation for the same reasons how would that be and yes it leads to outrage from the fans of specific shows perspectives.

Also the question is who are the out of state PBS affiliates covering Arkansas is yet to be revealed at some point. Why Arkansas did that was escalated by the defunding and shutdown of CPB.
 
arktimes.com

New group aims to keep PBS programming in Arkansas - Arkansas Times

Friends of Arkansas PBS, a newly formed, citizen-led group that hopes to preserve programming from the national Public Broadcasting Service in Arkansas, is hosting its first talk on Thursday.
arktimes.com arktimes.com

Here is more on the status over Arkansas TV.

Friends of Arkansas PBS, a newly formed, citizen-led group that hopes to preserve programming from the national Public Broadcasting Service in Arkansas, is hosting its first talk on Thursday.

Former Arkansas First Ladies Barbara Pryor and Gay White will serve as honorary co-chairs and are urging people to join, according to a press release shared on Monday.

“It was deeply disappointing to see that Arkansas is disaffiliating with Public Broadcasting Service,” White, the widow of former Gov. Frank White, said. “I completely understand not being able to make ends meet. What I do not understand is in a state with the resources we have, both in money and bright minds, we are unable to solve this problem. We know the state has surplus funds that could be used to supplement the loss of national funding. And I, as a financial supporter of PBS, am more than willing to increase my pledge. I know I’m not alone. Surely we can figure this out.”
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Apparently the governor underestimated the popularity of PBS. They think the people will watch anything on TV, and that the government can control what people watch. What we're seeing is that the people don't want to have their TV controlled by the state.
 
A noncommercial public broadcaster without PBS programming is only going to be of limited interest to viewers. I can only hope that MVPDs in Arkansas will import out-of-state PBS stations to fill the gap, which seems unproblematical as they are not duplicating any locally available content. But that doesn't help OTA-only viewers unless they are fairly near the border of a neighboring state that has a PBS affiliate.
 


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