PBS TV President Warns CPB Funding Cuts Will Cause Spiral of Death for Public Broadcasting

We turn first to the continuing fight over public broadcasting in this country. Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee voted to drastically cut funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. CPB is the US-tax payer funded agency that passes funds to public broadcasting stations in this country. The proposal to cut funding was authored by Ohio Republican Representative Ralph Regula and would eliminate $100 million in federal funding to CPB, 25% of the total allocation. Regula's proposal also calls for all federal funding to the CPB to be eliminated in two years. The cuts, if passed, would represent the most drastic cutback of public broadcasting since Congress created the nonprofit CPB in 1967. Regula has defended the cuts as necessary to avoid reductions in federal support for vocational education, job and medical training.

And last week, it was reported that a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee is the leading candidate to take over the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Patricia de Stacy Harrison is reportedly the favored candidate of the CPB's Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson. Harrison is currently a high-ranking official at the State Department. She was co-chair of the RNC from 1997 until January 2001, helping to raise for Republican candidates, including George W. Bush.

And in the face of charges from CPB Chair Tomlinson that it is has a liberal bias, and threats to its funding from Congress, the Public Broadcasting Service on Tuesday adopted an updated set of editorial standards and announced that it would add an ombudsman who will report directly to PBS President Pat Mitchell.

* Jeffrey Chester, Executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.
* Bill Reed, President of KCPT in Kansas City. He has been president for 13 years.
* Trina Cutter, President & General Manager of PBS 45 & 49 which serves Northeastern Ohio, parts of western Pennsylvania and parts of northern West Virgina. She is also the vice-president of Ohio Educational Television Stations and serves on the national Small Station association Board.

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/17/1425230