The other night on I watched a really excellent PBS Frontline investigative report on the dangerously under-funded state of affairs in our medical examiner offices across the country. The implications for justice are huge: with inexperienced, underfunded, often elected coroners filling this role in most counties in this nation, not only are some criminals going free, but many innocent people are being accused of crimes that may not have been crimes to begin with. The investigation was a joint venture from NPR, Frontline (which is a PBS program) and ProPublica.
Most of our television news programs are dominated by fluff pieces, celebrity gossip, and the latest political talking points regurgitated in endless cycles over the 24/7 cable networks. Loud, opinionated pundits make exagerrated and politicized claims, rarely bothering with pesky facts or any sort of investigation. Very few put out the kind of quality work that Frontline does on a regular basis. And Frontline would not be possible without PBS, a ‘public’ broadcasting network that relies partially on government funding to do its work, though also on donors and sponsors. Glenn Beck pretends to investigate progressives and the ‘liberal agenda’ of his political opponents, but most of the time he’s just spinning conspiracies. He rarely stands up to any fact-checking these days. CNN may have had a few good weeks with wall to wall coverage of events in the Middle East, but when things cool down we are still left with Parker/ Spitzer.
But, like NPR, PBS is now facing the new Republican House and its budget which seeks to cut all public funding from both NPR and PBS. The thinking goes something like this: if PBS and NPR want to be competitive they should have to face all the same competitive pressures that the rest of the news and broadcasting market face. NPR and PBS already get most of their funding from other sources than the government. Making them more commercialized and ‘privatized’ not only runs against their charter, which is to provide a public option in the news, but won’t actually save much money.
Republicans are afraid to go after the sacred cows of Medicare and defense, so they focus instead of pyrrhic victories and symbolic fiscal conservatism in place of the real thing. This may be good politics for them, but it is just useless hot air.
By the way NPR gets most of its funding from non-government sources:
If you watch any of PBS’s science shows you may even note the sponsorship of that noted non-liberal David H. Koch.
Will Americans let the Republicans go after the beloved programming of PBS? Sesame Street is as American as apple pie, and Elmo is the most beloved TV character on television. Any attempts to cut off Elmo’s funding will obviously be met with resistance by a large, bipartisan swath of the American electorate.
Of course, NPR and PBS will survive the cuts if they do happen (which they won’t). But Republicans may not survive more budget gimmicks.
