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It's Official, Trump proposes to zero-out CPB budget

F

FreddyE1977

Long discussed and predicted, President Trump has formally made a budget proposal that would
phase out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS and NPR) over a two-year period.

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/373434-trump-proposes-eliminating-federal-funding-for-pbs-npr

This may or may not actually happen as there are many steps in the process that have to be navigated between here and there.

A note to our host: I am NOT trying to provoke a political debate. This is a subject where I know
a lot of you are sincerely interested, and one of a handful of issues where the topics of the board
and politics are inseparable.
 
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If CPB and PBS can market their DVDs and Sesame Street stuff into retail and profit then they really don't need government funding.
 
TVCOOL said:
If CPB and PBS can market their DVDs and Sesame Street stuff into retail and profit then they really don't need government funding.
Click to expand...

Excellent idea, and they could also market DVD's and other merchandise from many of their other great shows, and with some PBS stations getting profits from channel sharing their spectrum with commercial stations they could rely a lot less or not at all on government aid.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Long discussed and predicted, President Trump has formally made a budget proposal that would
phase out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS and NPR) over a two-year period.
Click to expand...

If you check, you'll see the White House made the same proposal one year ago, and Congress ignored it.

The president doesn't decide how the money is spent. He can propose, but the Constitution gives the power to Congress. As usual, this budget will be DOA.
 
TVCOOL said:
If CPB and PBS can market their DVDs and Sesame Street stuff into retail and profit then they really don't need government funding.
Click to expand...

That's a nice idea, but Children's Television Workshop owns the copyright, not CPB. And what about radio?
 
TheBigA said:
If you check, you'll see the White House made the same proposal one year ago, and Congress ignored it.

The president doesn't decide how the money is spent. He can propose, but the Constitution gives the power to Congress. As usual, this budget will be DOA.
Click to expand...

Wait don't CPB give the funds for public broadcasting to smaller Public Media outlets like West Virginia Public Media or others like Maine Public Broadcasting or GPB these places are more dependent on CPB than outlets like KQED, WAMU, WGBH, WNET and WNYC where they can simply get local underwriters to donate to their stations.
 
RadioPatrol said:
Wait don't CPB give the funds for public broadcasting to smaller Public Media outlets like West Virginia Public Media or others like Maine Public Broadcasting or GPB these places are more dependent on CPB than outlets like KQED, WAMU, WGBH, WNET and WNYC where they can simply get local underwriters to donate to their stations.
Click to expand...

CPB was created by Congress to distribute federal funds to public radio & TV stations. In order to qualify, the stations have to fulfil certain CPB requirements in terms of employees, audience, signal, and local fundraising.

Certainly the smaller stations in the more rural "red" states are more dependent on the federal funding than the big stations in the typically blue areas. So that's why I said earlier that this proposal is simply that, and will be ignored when Congress gets around to appropriating funds.
 
PBS can make it on it's own they don't need tax dollars PBS should get retrans money like Sinclair's, Nexstar's, Scripps etc. I'm also fine if people want to donate money to PBS or NPR which can also make it on it's own without taxes going to them.
 
Megatron said:
PBS can make it on it's own they don't need tax dollars PBS should get retrans money like Sinclair's, Nexstar's, Scripps etc. I'm also fine if people want to donate money to PBS or NPR which can also make it on it's own without taxes going to them.
Click to expand...

PBS doesn't in fact own any TV stations. None. PBS is not like Sinclair, Nexstar, etc. So explain to me how they can get retrains money if they don't in fact own TV stations.

And how do public radio stations get retrains money?

BTW the public is not allowed to donate money to PBS.

Any more bright ideas?
 
Will_H_69_9 said:
wouldn't PBS/NPR be consider the closest thing the US has to "State Run" media outlet.
Click to expand...

No because they're not run by the state.

On the other hand, VOA is.

The reason Congress created CPB was to insulate it from the government. They were worried about this back in 1967.

Just because an organization receives government funding doesn't mean it's run by the government.

Lots of businesses receive government funding, including commercial radio & TV stations.
 
umfan said:
Time for CPB to go, and this time it really has a chance of happening.
Click to expand...

Nothing has changed from last year, when the Republicans voted the full $445 million appropriation for CPB.

In fact they have advance funded it through 2019.

If the Republicans want CPB to go, the only real way to do it is repeal the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.

The fact is they don't have the votes to do it.
 
TheBigA said:
If you check, you'll see the White House made the same proposal one year ago, and Congress ignored it.

The president doesn't decide how the money is spent. He can propose, but the Constitution gives the power to Congress. As usual, this budget will be DOA.
Click to expand...

Yes, you are correct, BigA. I think I pointed that out when I said a lot could happen between here and there. Congress holds the power of the purse under the Constitution.

They don't have to repeal the Act or eliminate CPB. They can just refuse to fund it.
CPB apparently has other sources of funding and could likely survive in some form
without the subsidy.
 
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FreddyE1977 said:
CPB apparently has other sources of funding and could likely survive in some form
without the subsidy.
Click to expand...

Really? What are those other sources of funding?

Other than interest on the appropriation, I don't see any other funding source:

https://www.cpb.org/aboutcpb/financials/budget/

The point however isn't for CPB to survive, but for the local stations to survive. CPB is merely the intermediary. According to this, 95% of the appropriation goes directly to local radio stations. As I said, Congress already appropriated the money through 2019, and actually the 2020 appropriation has been approved by the House committee.
 
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TVCOOL said:
If CPB and PBS can market their DVDs and Sesame Street stuff into retail and profit then they really don't need government funding.
Click to expand...

CPB does not fund DVD's though? But that argument is over a decade ago and its now the app age. BAck to the CPB funds the smaller budget public media outlets though. Also these days there's PBS digital studios that exist where larger PBS affiliates can easily produce segments for Youtube and PBS app. Also public media outlets do fund made for podcasts segments though not sure how much CPB allows smaller outlets to provide funds to make app only content though for now.
 
I have read somewhere that CPB had other sources of funding (foundation grants, etc.) and at this point only about 15% of the money was coming from Federal appropriations. But I could be wrong about that.

If that is the case Congress really COULD put the CFB out of business merely by refusing to fund it,
which undercuts the argument you made initially. The FBI was established by law and Congress could refuse to fund that as well. The fact that something exists in law does not obligate Congress to fund it. That power of the purse is absolute. The Vietnam war ended essentially because Congress refused to further fund it.

I can tell you that speaking as someone from the right side of the political spectrum, support for funding public broadcasting amongst Conservatives has absolutely cratered in the last twenty-five years.

Back then a lot of Conservatives who generally oppose this type of spending nonetheless supported CPB
because they liked Mr. Rogers or Sesame Street, or appreciated cultural programs like symphonies and operas.

No more. The perception (and I am only saying that....the perception) on the Right is that NPR and PBS
are engaged in a full-throated political attack on Conservatives 24/7. That their coverage is SO biased,
implying that anyone with Conservative views is a bigoted racist, sexist homophobe.....that it has driven the
Conservative half of their potential audience away in droves.

And what you don't watch or listen to, you don't support. I can tell you that I feel particularly
unwelcome listening to NPR. Beyond that the pervading feeling amongst Conservative friends of mine
is that we should not be forced to pay to hear ourselves slandered on a national broadcast network.

I think it is now a 50-50 battle whether CPB survives or dies. They would have been well-served
to have pursued some true balance in their programming fifteen or twenty years ago. If they had
retained some portion of Conservatives in their audience this likely would not be happening.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
I have read somewhere that CPB had other sources of funding (foundation grants, etc.) and at this point only about 15% of the money was coming from Federal appropriations. But I could be wrong about that.
Click to expand...

That's what NPR says. CPB's entire reason for existence is stated in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. You might want to read it before you make statements about it.

The situation is simple. The president has proposed a budget. It doesn't matter what he says. Congress has already appropriated the money, so we know how Congress feels about it. The funding bill that passed last week contains that money. So it's really too late. If they wanted to defund, they could have done it last year. As I've said, this isn't about conservative or liberal. CPB is currently being run by a Republican. The current funding plan was devised by Reagan Republicans. No one is forcing anyone to do anything. No one is forcing you to listen. And you don't vote on whether or not they get their money.

If Congress doesn't want to fund it, they will be screwing 27 Republican governors who run state public broadcasting systems in states like Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and South Carolina. Do you really think that's what Congress wants to do? The blue states don't need the money. The public stations in California and Massachusetts will continue without federal funding. But West Virginia, Montana, and Alaska will probably shut down. Will those Reps vote to screw their own states? We'll see.
 
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