Re: [Swprograms] Protest cutting funding for public broadcasting

[Joseph Buch <joseph.buch@xxxxxxx>]

The government has been subsidizing public broadcasting for about 40 years.  Enough already.  On the one hand the feds want to meddle in the content of NPR and PBS programming because they help fund that programming.  On the other hand the feds want to cut funding to help balance the budget.

I say let's drop all government funding of public broadcasting and get the government's influence out of the program content.  Let the people who value PBS and NPR pay for what they get.  If NPR and PBS were solely funded by the people who value the programming, they would be more responsive to their audience's desires.  I say let's put the "public" back in public broadcasting and tell the bureaucrats to bugger off.  Many folks will not contribute to public stations because they feel they already support public broadcasting via their tax dollars.  Eliminating that excuse may actually help public broadcasters' bottom lines.

The current system of feeding at the government trough has resulted in stations expanding to the point where they now overlap coverage with the same program material.  One of the most flagrant examples is the situation in Washington DC where WAMU-FM and WETA-FM cover nearly identical service areas with prime drive-time programming that is the same Morning Edition and All Things Considered programs on both stations.  On the Delmarva peninsula, these programs are aired by three stations, WESM, WSCL and WSDL which have about 80% of their coverage areas overlapping.  This is a waste.  If the government money was not there to support this waste, the stations would be forced to diversify their products in the hope of garnering a larger loyal audience attuned to a particular type of program material.  The programming would be more diverse and the people would stand a better chance of getting the type of programming they want.

Government has done its job of providing the seed money to get the public broadcasters up and running.  It is now time to back off and let public broadcasting learn how to swim without water wings.
Joe Buch


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