You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Home Front: Politix
House protects public broadcasting
2007-07-20
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House on Wednesday evening overwhelmingly rejected President Bush's plan to eliminate the $420 million federal subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The 357-72 vote demonstrated the enduring political strength of public broadcasting. The outcome was never in doubt, unlike a fight two years ago when Republicans tried but failed to slash public broadcasting subsidies.

The move to kill subsidies for the CPB, which make up about 15 percent of its budget, was launched by Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado.
The CPB couldn't tighten its belt by 15%?
"Taxpayers are being asked to pay more in taxes because Congress is not willing to make hard choices and balance our spending with our income," Lamborn said.

Congress created the corporation in 1967 to shield public broadcasting from political influence. The CPB distributes federal subsidies to PBS, National Public Radio and hundreds of public radio and television stations.

"It is providing a voice for America, a noncommercial, independent voice that is sadly lacking. It isn't available any place else in the million channels on our cable networks," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon.
The programming for children can be and is duplicated on a variety of cable channels. Ditto for Masterpiece Theater. And the music concerts are straight off DVD anyways.
The vote came as the House for a second day debated a huge spending bill funding job training, education and health programs. The underlying bill provides about $152 billion next year for earmarks programs whose budgets are set at lawmakers' discretion each year. Among the largest increases is $2.2 billion to finance an increase of $260 in the maximum Pell Grant for college students.
So that colleges can raise tuition by $260 per year.
Posted by:Delphi

#6  Is that what passes for intelligent debate with you, #2 troll bk?

*Yawn*

On the trollery scale, I'd give that a -2. And I'm in a generous mood tonight.

Now run along, little troll, back to your koskiddie buddies and tell them what a pathetic idiot how brave and insightful you were, and leave this site for the adults. You're not even worth batting around.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2007-07-20 19:28  

#5  There was a time when Public Broadcasting served a useful niche but with today's profusion of media sources it has become obsolete.

For educational programming on cable alone we have a History Channel, Discovery Channel and a variety of other scientific and cultural networks. That does not even take into account the ever expanding number of sites on the internet for political analysis, news, entertainment etc.

The only function of PBS today is to act as one of the last refuges for the leftist viewpoint of aging liberal dinosaurs like NPR and the New York Times.
Posted by: Grumenk Philalzabod0723   2007-07-20 19:17  

#4  I wonder if they'll all get tote bags?
Posted by: tu3031   2007-07-20 12:55  

#3  Hey, don't be bashing PBS. Without it, Bill Moyers would be just another bum sleeping on a steam grate somewhere, writing op-eds for your local 'alternative' newspaper.
Posted by: SteveS   2007-07-20 12:50  

#2  they're more popular because the constituency in rural america would rather be told by pat robertson what to believe and how to think as they're so saturated with Rupert Murdochs Broadcasting that the independent "thinking" part of their tiny little brains dissolved along time ago, hey, just like all you rantburgers, just like you Fred.
Posted by: bk   2007-07-20 12:30  

#1  Don't mourn too much. In a lot of rural America, where PBS are just a micro stations, Pat Robertson's broadcast group has been capitalizing on a loophole in FCC regulations to buy out the PBS license and replace it with religious broadcasting.

They can show that not only is Robertson's group far more capable of supporting such stations, but also that they are far more popular than was the PBS station they replaced.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2007-07-20 10:22  

00:00