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Donald Trump Again Wants To Eliminate Funding For Public Media

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

https://deadline.com/2020/02/donald-trump-public-media-pbs-npr-1202856498/

Here we go again the funding against CPB becomes a threat again.

Everytime we have this story come out it end in congress overturning the presidents plan. Yes every time we see this the smaller PBS and NPR affiliates are hit the hardest and are forced to merge with bigger NPR and PBS affiliates to Survive. Here is a local example in my area NorthState Public Radio in Chico having to merge with Sacramento's Capital Public radio to decrease the likely hood of being killed off. Another Case KQED inc formed a TV Duopoly 15 years ago with KTEH-TV to increase donor access. Or WNET-TV Taking over NJN inc and WLIW for the NYC TV Market to increase donor access.


http://www.capradio.org/about/press...ship-to-enhance-northern-california-coverage/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_State_Public_Radio

President Donald Trump’s proposed new budget again calls for all but eliminating funding for public media, but it’s highly unlikely that will happen.

This is the fourth year in a row the White House has called for slashing funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding to public TV stations, PBS and NPR. Past proposals have been stopped in Congress, which sets budget levels for federal agencies. Even when Republicans held both chambers of Congress, lawmakers kept public media funding at its current level, roughly $445 million.

The White House’s proposed Fiscal Year 2021 budget would scale back discretionary funding across the board while increasing military spending. The amount allocated for public media would be reduced to just $30 million. Public media advocates say that the CPB funding is especially essential for small- and medium- sized stations, the loss of which would threaten the structure of the PBS network.
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TheBigA said:
And that's how it will end this year too. CPB funding was set during the Reagan administration. This is a Republican plan. Everyone knows it.

Just two months ago the Republican Senate approved a $20 million increase:

https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/cpb-to-get-20m-funding-increase-in-2020
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The White House budget also eliminates funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, two agencies that also have been targets in recent years yet have survived.

Trump recently questioned NPR’s funding after his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, lashed out at one of its reporters, Mary Louise Kelly, for the questions that she posed to him during an interview.

After that confrontation, conservative radio host Mark Levin tweeted, “Why does NPR still exist? We have thousands of radio stations in the U.S. Plus Satellite radio. Podcasts. Why are we paying for this big-government, Democrat Party propaganda operation.”

Trump retweeted the comment and wrote, “A very good question!”

But public broadcasting has enjoyed broad support among lawmakers, who often turn to their local outlets for appearances on public affairs programming. Public media advocates also have been successful at mobilizing viewers to contact members of Congress when it looks like their funding is threatened.
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https://deadline.com/2020/02/donald-trump-public-media-pbs-npr-1202856498/

The reason the president is now going after CPB is because of the incident where Pompeo lashed out at an NPR Reporter when the allegations leading to the Trump Impeachment was then at play.
 
RadioPatrol said:
The reason the president is now going after CPB is because of the incident where Pompeo lashed out at an NPR Reporter when the allegations leading to the Trump Impeachment was then at play.
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That's a made up reason. The budget had been prepared, and the item cut, before that incident happened.

If they want to get rid of CPB, all they have to do is propose legislation to repeal the Public Broadcasting Act.
 
TheBigA said:
That's a made up reason. The budget had been prepared, and the item cut, before that incident happened.

If they want to get rid of CPB, all they have to do is propose legislation to repeal the Public Broadcasting Act.
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True its just everything seems to escalate whenever the administration wants to go after the media.
 
It's less a political matter than a philosophical one.
Some of us just don't believe it's a proper function of government to fund media outlets.

For one thing it's very hard to maintain journalistic objectivity when you rely on the
very politicians you're covering to pay your salary.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
It's less a political matter than a philosophical one.
Some of us just don't believe it's a proper function of government to fund media outlets.

For one thing it's very hard to maintain journalistic objectivity when you rely on the
very politicians you're covering to pay your salary.
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The politicians don't pay the salaries. The taxpayers pay the salaries.
 
POTUS has threatened to eliminate CPB funding in his last budget. Since Congress has the ultimate say over budgets, it didn't happen, and probably won't again this time.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
For one thing it's very hard to maintain journalistic objectivity when you rely on the
very politicians you're covering to pay your salary.
Click to expand...

The federal aid doesn't go to journalism. It goes to the satellite interconnection, it goes to physical facilities, and ultimately it goes to local radio stations.

It would really help if people knew the law. This battle was fought 50 years ago when the law was passed. There's a reason why CPB exists, and that's to be a buffer between the government and the radio stations. This is not a new thing. It's been around since the 60s. It's been funded by Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals. It goes back to Thomas Jefferson, who wanted an informed and educated electorate.
 
I've never supported PBS financially. But I will as soon as they don't have any more public funding. When my $$$ is already paying for it against my will I have no reason or desire to. But when that changes I will write a check immediately. I don't think I'm alone.

But it won't be changing anytime soon.
 
TheBigA said:
It goes back to Thomas Jefferson, who wanted an informed and educated electorate.
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Now THAT'S a little bit of a stretch, isn't it?

So that's been the law for 50 years. So what? It's not like laws can't change, or that it was the right
thing to do in the first place.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
So that's been the law for 50 years. So what? It's not like laws can't change, or that it was the right
thing to do in the first place.
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They had your argument 50 years ago. It doesn't matter. Republicans keep voting to continue the appropriation.

Laws can't change if people don't propose a repeal, and nobody is proposing a repeal. The president only cares about one thing.

There is no line item veto. CPB funding will be lumped in with everything else in a general spending bill. That's what's happened before.
 
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