[Peace-discuss] [sf-core] Fwd: Save NPR and PBS

Sat Feb 19 09:44:03 CST 2011

Andrew--

It's good that CPB has sometimes contributed to good programming, but that 
doesn't seem to be an adequate reason to support it when its purpose is to be 
something like a general pacification program for electronic media. It's surely 
no accident that DN! takes no CPB money.

Of course CPB is hardly the sole reason that formerly alternative stations - 
WBAI, KPFA, and of course sad WEFT, locally - are so noticeably decadent today. 
  But it's helped: it was obviously the goal of the 'liberal' funders. The 
successful attempt of the Clintonoids to bring down Pacifica, ur-alternative 
radio, should have made the liberal media strategy clear. Similarly to other 
areas with no left alternative, the liberals could relax into the posture that 
they are the only thing holding off yahoo-commercial right-wing talk radio - 
just as Obama is the only thing that stands between us and the fell clutches of 
Sarah Palin. ("Always keep ahold of Nurse / For fear of finding something 
worse...")

Compare the situation with alternative media a generation ago. The attempt to 
break thorough the carapace of the peculiar American control of the press - see 
"Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" (1988) - 
produced the "underground press" during the American assault on SE Asia, which 
set new standards of news and cultural reporting. It's hard to imagine its being 
supported by a "Corporation for Public Journalism" in its heyday, for obvious 
reasons. (Eventually of course business forces eviscerated it, but that took 
some time - about a decade.)

"The power to tax is the power to destroy" has been an American bromide for two 
centuries, but it's also obviously true that the power to fund is the power to 
debilitate, and it's hard to say that hasn't happened in alternative media when 
community radio stations have become little more than advertising agencies for 
commercial music producers. It's not just news and public affairs that have been 
debased in alternative radio, but cultural programming as well. As Brecht 
pointed out, "For art to be 'unpolitical' means only to ally itself with the 
'ruling' group."

Money from CPB may occasionally largely by accident accomplish something good, 
and there is no reason to refuse those moments.  But to support it 
whole-heartedly is to accept alms for oblivion...

Much better to spend the energy, e.g., in trying to overcome the effective 
censorship imposed on Al Jazeera in the US.

Regards, Carl

On 2/12/11 11:51 AM, "Dr. Andrew Ó Baoill" wrote:
> 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: 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>.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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