[Peace-discuss] [sf-core] Fwd: Save NPR and PBS
"Dr. Andrew Ó Baoill"
andrew at funferal.org
Sat Feb 12 11:51:29 CST 2011
I think it's also important to understand that "defund NPR and PBS" is shorthand, designed to explain the proposal in terms of 'retail level' brands the general public will know (and, generally, feel fondly towards). The actual plan is to zero out funding for CPB, which is the main public entity that provides funding not just for NPR and PBS, but also for Pacifica and many community radio stations.
There's been continual debate over the merits (and impact) of the CPB's approach to supporting non-commercial broadcasting, but are critics of the current approach - who, perhaps, want more funding for locally-oriented programming, or more programming that undertakes critical examination of our political and economic elites - really better served by shutting down all federal funding for non-commercial broadcasting? Are we really better served by a media system in which advertising, wealthy philanthropists, and individual subscription/donation (largely in that order) are the only sources of funding for our media system? What's the roadmap for restarting public funding (and ensuring such funding is 'better' focused than the current system?
There are some exceptions out there: Democracy Now! does not receive CPB funding, though I'm not sure how many of their affiliates get CPB funding that is then available to fund their support for DN! (and, of course, the Pacifica Foundation, DN!'s largest funder, receives CPB funding).
Andrew
On 2011 Feabh 12, at 11:42, Mike Lehman wrote:
> While I really can't dispute the criticisms of NPR (and PBS) and am
> regularly disappointed by them, I think it's wholly counterproductive to
> presume that the elimination of either would benefit those seeking
> alternatives to the present system.
>
> Society needs more spaces where something other than FAUX News and
> Corporate News Network prevail. It may not be a perfect space, and
> certainly never enough to justifiably satisfy some critics, but
> eliminating "public" broadcasting would serve FAUX and CNN, rather than
> weaken the system that make the broader conversations our society needs
> so difficult. Neither CNN or FAUX is subject to public pressure, while
> "public" broadcasting is, however much it still falls short of what
> would be ideal.
>
> I can see people saying they won't lift a finger to help PBS and NPR.
> But urging others to join the Republicans in helping eliminate one of
> the few spaces left where a progressive argument at least gets aired
> from time to time isn't something I consider to be an effective strategy
> to building alternative media spaces that challenge the status quo.
>
> The masses of teeming apathy have to have someplace comfortable to start
> a journey to alternative ways of looking at the world and our society.
> Slamming the gate to the path to move from the garden of evil into the
> garden of justice and peace is not going to cause more than a very few
> to look to jump over the fence instead.
>
> And I doubt if either is going away, even if the Repugnicans/Tea Party
> get their fantasy of eliminating both. They'll just become more
> dependent on corporate cash -- and that will make all the things they
> are criticized for worse.
>
> Far better to waste such physic and political energy on better
> alternatives so that once people are roused from their sleep, they have
> a place to grab a cup of coffee to steel their nerves to go beyond the
> conflicted American dreamscape that PBS and NPR offer. Revolution is
> what we build, not what we help reactionaries tear down.
> Mike Lehman
>
> On 2/11/2011 10:11 PM, David Johnson wrote:
>> I have had no use for NPR ( National Public Radio ) and PBS TV for quite
>> some time.
>>
>> Cases in point....
>>
>> The propoganda campaign they aired when Reagan died a few years ago ( may
>> his soul rot in hell ) that presented Reagan as an idolized icon, with NO
>> counter view of Reagan and his disasterous foreign ( can you say " war
>> crimes " ) policy and his disasterous neo-liberal / neo-conservative
>> domestic policies.
>>
>> Then there was the coverage of the People's Historian Howard Zinn when he
>> died a little over a year ago. The ONLY view about Howard Zinn presented on
>> NPR was the trash job on Zinn done by David Howoritz.
>>
>> NPR is nothing but FOX " news " for the intelligencia.
>>
>> The reason of course for NPR's de-evolution is the ever increasing reliance
>> over the years on corporate funding.
>>
>> I could care less if NPR goes off the air.
>> It would be one less corporate news outlet.
>> What suprises me is the large number of seemingly well educated and
>> supposedly " compasionate and progressive " people who still listen to NPR's
>> corpoarte trash and consider it an " opposition " and " objective " news
>> source.
>>
>> David J.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "C. G. ESTABROOK"<cge at shout.net>
>> To: "Belden Fields"<a-fields at uiuc.edu>
>> Cc: "Walter Feinberg"<wfeinber at illinois.edu>; "Fred Coombs Fred Coombs"
>> <coombs at rainbowtel.net>; "SFcore"<sf-core at yahoogroups.com>;
>> <sadougla at illinois.edu>
>> Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 9:01 PM
>> Subject: Re: [sf-core] Fwd: Save NPR and PBS
>>
>>
>>> National Propaganda Radio? Why?
>>>
>>> NPR reports on Obama's war in the Mideast probably don't differ formally
>>> from
>>> official Russian accounts during their invasion of Afghanistan. They would
>>> have
>>> discussed how can we get victory, how can we destroy the terrorists, will
>>> this
>>> tactic work, will that tactic work, we're losing too many soldiers and so
>>> on. We
>>> assume that no one in the official Russian media asked, Do we have a right
>>> to
>>> invade another country? And of course NPR doesn't do that either.
>>>
>>> But NPR has far less excuse. With media under totalitarian control, if you
>>> said
>>> the wrong thing you'd go off to the gulag. Here it's just willing
>>> subordination
>>> to power. The result is no main-stream journalism - even (particularly?)
>>> NPR -
>>> that goes beyond the college newspaper cheering for the home team.
>>>
>>> Chris Hedges prefaces his important new book, "The Death of the Liberal
>>> Class,"
>>> with a passage from Orwell's suppressed introduction to Animal Farm:
>>>
>>> "At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it
>>> is
>>> assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is
>>> not
>>> exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is 'not done' to
>>> say
>>> it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was 'not done' to mention trousers
>>> in the
>>> presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds
>>> himself
>>> silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion
>>> is
>>> almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the
>>> highbrow periodicals" - and, he might have added, on highbrow radio.
>>>
>>> During the presidential campaign Obama said that the spectrum of
>>> discussion in
>>> the United States extends between two crazy extremes, Rush Limbaugh and
>>> NPR. The
>>> truth, he said, is in the middle and that is where he is going to be - in
>>> the
>>> middle, between the crazies.
>>>
>>> Obama has a way of telling the truth about his right-wing politics,
>>> certain that
>>> no one will hear him. NPR certainly won't tell.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 2/11/11 7:55 PM, Belden Fields wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Begin forwarded message:
>>>>
>>>>> *From: *Troy Burks<burkstroy at yahoo.com<mailto:burkstroy at yahoo.com>>
>>>>> *Date: *February 11, 2011 1:28:18 PM CST
>>>>> *To: *A EL-Jamal<sbygrace at yahoo.com<mailto:sbygrace at yahoo.com>>, Aaron
>>>>> Ammons<livingsoul at sbcglobal.net<mailto:livingsoul at sbcglobal.net>>,
>>>>> Andre
>>>>> Arrington<aarrington at DMBGC-CU.ORG<mailto:aarrington at DMBGC-CU.ORG>>,
>>>>> Angela
>>>>> Barbee<evansbarbee at yahoo.com<mailto:evansbarbee at yahoo.com>>, Anna
>>>>> Henry
>>>>> <aphenry27 at gmail.com<mailto:aphenry27 at gmail.com>>, Arthur Culver
>>>>> <culverar at champaignschools.org<mailto:culverar at champaignschools.org>>,
>>>>> Barbara kessel<barkes at gmail.com<mailto:barkes at gmail.com>>, Barbara
>>>>> Gillespie
>>>>> <bggillespie at sbcglobal.net<mailto:bggillespie at sbcglobal.net>>, Belden
>>>>> Fields
>>>>> <a-fields at uiuc.edu<mailto:a-fields at uiuc.edu>>, Ben Rothschild
>>>>> <rothsch2 at gmail.com<mailto:rothsch2 at gmail.com>>, Benita Gay
>>>>> <bgay at communityelements.org<mailto:bgay at communityelements.org>>,
>>>>> Bernice
>>>>> Harrington<bharring at illinois.edu<mailto:bharring at illinois.edu>>, Bill
>>>>> <hardheadent at vzw.blackberry.net
>>>>> <mailto:hardheadent at vzw.blackberry.net>>,
>>>>> Brandon Bowersox<brandonbowersox at gmail.com
>>>>> <mailto:brandonbowersox at gmail.com>>, Brian Dolinar
>>>>> <briandolinar at gmail.com
>>>>> <mailto:briandolinar at gmail.com>>, Byron Clark<byroncl at gmail.com
>>>>> <mailto:byroncl at gmail.com>>, carol ammons<carolammons at gmail.com
>>>>> <mailto:carolammons at gmail.com>>, Carol Inskeep<carolinskeep at yahoo.com
>>>>> <mailto:carolinskeep at yahoo.com>>, Charlie Smyth<csmyth at sbcglobal.net
>>>>> <mailto:csmyth at sbcglobal.net>>, Chris Hamb<chrishamb at chrishamb.com
>>>>> <mailto:chrishamb at chrishamb.com>>, Claire Cape
>>>>> <claire.kirkcape351 at gmail.com
>>>>> <mailto:claire.kirkcape351 at gmail.com>>, Cope Cumpston
>>>>> <cope.c at comcast.net
>>>>> <mailto:cope.c at comcast.net>>, "Craig Walker cwsierramar at aol.com
>>>>> <mailto:cwsierramar at aol.com>"<cwalker at Brv-llc.com
>>>>> <mailto:cwalker at Brv-llc.com>>, Crystal Thomas
>>>>> <crystal_s_thomas at hotmail.com
>>>>> <mailto:crystal_s_thomas at hotmail.com>>, CU Greg Square
>>>>> <gsquare at parkland.edu
>>>>> <mailto:gsquare at parkland.edu>>, CU Toriano Harvey
>>>>> <t.harvey.4 at hotmail.com
>>>>> <mailto:t.harvey.4 at hotmail.com>>, Danielle Chynoweth
>>>>> <danielle at prometheusradio.org<mailto:danielle at prometheusradio.org>>,
>>>>> Danis
>>>>> Pelmore<Danispelmore at comcast.net<mailto:Danispelmore at comcast.net>>,
>>>>> Debarah
>>>>> McFarland<DMcFarland at DMBGC-CU.ORG<mailto:DMcFarland at DMBGC-CU.ORG>>,
>>>>> Dennis
>>>>> Roberts<drobertscitycouncil at yahoo.com
>>>>> <mailto:drobertscitycouncil at yahoo.com>>, Diane Marlin
>>>>> <marlindiane at gmail.com
>>>>> <mailto:marlindiane at gmail.com>>
>>>>> *Subject: **Fw: Save NPR and PBS*
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --- On *Fri, 2/11/11, Daniel Mintz, MoveOn.org Political Action
>>>>> /<moveon-help at list.moveon.org<mailto:moveon-help at list.moveon.org>>/*
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> From: Daniel Mintz, MoveOn.org Political Action
>>>>> <moveon-help at list.moveon.org<mailto:moveon-help at list.moveon.org>>
>>>>> Subject: Save NPR and PBS
>>>>> To: "Rev. Troy A. Burks"<burkstroy at yahoo.com
>>>>> <mailto:burkstroy at yahoo.com>>
>>>>> Date: Friday, February 11, 2011, 7:07 PM
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> <http://pol.moveon.org/nprpbs/?id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x&t=1>"Congress
>>>>> must protect NPR and PBS and guarantee them permanent funding, free
>>>>> from
>>>>> political meddling."
>>>>> <http://pol.moveon.org/nprpbs/?id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x&t=1>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Sign the petition
>>>>> <http://pol.moveon.org/nprpbs/?id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x&t=2>
>>>>>
>>>>> Dear MoveOn member,
>>>>>
>>>>> I guess we shouldn't be surprised.
>>>>>
>>>>> With Republicans back in charge of the House of Representatives,
>>>>> *funding
>>>>> for NPR and PBS is in grave danger.* Again.
>>>>>
>>>>> The Republicans just released their budget proposal, and it *zeroes
>>>>> out
>>>>> funding for both NPR and PBS*—the worst proposal in more than a
>>>>> decade.^1
>>>>>
>>>>> They probably think that no one will notice these cuts in the midst
>>>>> of so
>>>>> many others. But the millions of listeners and viewers who rely on
>>>>> public
>>>>> broadcasting for "Sesame Street," "All Things Considered," and
>>>>> independent
>>>>> journalism will notice.
>>>>>
>>>>> We need to tell Republicans that cutting off funding was
>>>>> unacceptable last
>>>>> time they were in charge, and it's unacceptable now.
>>>>>
>>>>> Add your name to the petition to save NPR and PBS
>>>>> <http://pol.moveon.org/nprpbs/?id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x&t=3>
>>>>>
>>>>> The petition says: "/Congress must protect NPR and PBS and guarantee
>>>>> them
>>>>> permanent funding, free from political meddling./"
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for all you do.
>>>>>
>>>>> –Daniel, Amy, Michael, Wes, and the rest of the team
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. "Beyond Reason on the Budget," /The New York Times/, February 10,
>>>>> 2011
>>>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/opinion/11fri1.html
>>>>>
>>>>> Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 5 million
>>>>> members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our
>>>>> tiny
>>>>> staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here
>>>>>
>>>>> <https://pol.moveon.org/donate/email.html?id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x&t=5>.
>>>>>
>>>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not
>>>>> authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. This email was
>>>>> sent
>>>>> to Rev. Troy A. Burks on February 11, 2011. To change your email
>>>>> address
>>>>> or update your contact info, click here
>>>>> <http://moveon.org/subscrip/coa.html?id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x>. To
>>>>> remove
>>>>> yourself from this list, click here
>>>>> <http://moveon.org/s?i=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x>. Web Bug from
>>>>> http://open.moveon.org/o.gif?id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x
>>>>>
>
>
>
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