Somewhat surprising to read this on the CNN website this morning:
National Public Radio CEO Vivian Schiller resigned Wednesday, according to NPR’s website.
First of all, it appears the CNN didn’t get the memo, NPR no longer stands for “National Public Radio.” It is just three letters, stands for nothing, move along now, nothing to see here. Maybe they’ll change that back again, it’d be nice to keep the “radio” in NPR.
Secondly, I have been watching the public radio funding debate with casual interest. Overall, I support public radio and TV. There are many good programs and such that those stations produce and I don’t think we’d see anything like them on what is now the complete and utter waste land known as commercial broadcasting.
Where I part company with the CPB and NPR is the use of public funding to install proprietary HD Radio equipment at member stations. Further, when that equipment did not meet up with expectations, NPR then petitioning the FCC for a power increase which their own study admitted may cause interference to other stations.
I have also noticed a particular hush in their news reporting once President Obama took office. Gone are the investigative reports on Guantanamo Bay, which is still there and now appears to be an indefinite detention facility. Nary a peep was heard about the renewal of the USA Patriot act last February, a topic that lead to much hyperventilation previously. Wire taps, extraordinary rendition, drone attacks, what? All of which gives the news product a left lean, which on the public dime, chafes my neck a bit. Apparently, I am not alone in this.
Since most of government grants and subsidies are political in nature, I have never supported NPR or PBS. Some will say that they were/are “well intentioned”, I don’t see anything about their nature, structure, or funding in the U.S. Constitution. A federal income tax is a mandate, if you don’t pay, you may be fined or end up in a federal prison. Like labor unions, once they get in, it becomes much harder to get them out, and their mentality is to grab more money every year. That is why NPR has the money for the proprietary IBOC HD transmitters and licensing. If NPR and PBS are doing such a great job, why do they need a mandated taxpayer funded crutch? If they were totally independent, they could survive on donations, have bake sales, or sell books and bumper stickers. And since they do have listeners, I believe voluntary support is the American way. As to their programming, it usually leans left of center and all of their contributors are liberals. I have never seen any issues of both sides presented honestly. That is fine, but as in the case of collectivist labor unions, I don’t need them and in addition, I despise them. Let freedom of choice ring, and end ALL subsidies to NPR and PBS now.
Completely, totally, utterly agree with you on this one. The word that bugs me more than anything is “proprietary”. We, the government, are essentially saying, “You will buy this one company’s (iBiquity) equipment. Period.” Whether or not its the best standard, that’s what we’re going with. What happened to open standards? Oh, that’s right, what have those given us, other than the TV boom starting in the 50s and this little thing that’s called… oh, what is it?… oh, yeah, the Internet.
>I don’t see anything about their nature, structure, or funding in the U.S. Constitution.
Just like interstate highways, the FDA, and subsidies to corn farmers.
Really, when you think about it, local public radio stations do raise much of their own money, at least the ones around here do. They then have to kick an inordinate amount of money up to NPR to carry their network programming. CPB funds sort of offset this? I don’t know all the ins and outs. A shell game of sorts. Seems to me, if they lost there federal tax dollars, they’d survive and be in a leaner, more listener attuned force, which might actually thrive.
The local TV station is already talking about cutting Seseme street, next I predict the “Or Elmo gets it…” poster. The horror, the horror.
Back in 1995, the bleeding hearts started crying about the possibility of losing “Big Bird”. Now it will probably be Clifford the Big Red Dog, or maybe Tavis Smiley! It might even build to angry rent-a-mobs screaming and demonstrating like they’re doing with Governor Walker. If anybody looked at what the local PBS affiliates spend on new gizmos in their operations, they would be shocked. I know of no for profit TV broadcasting station here that spends like the PBS affiliate. They definitely should look at being “leaner”, but the only way that will happen is to take the rattle away from the baby.