New Public Media

While public broadcasting didn’t get the budgetary axe from Washington this year, many stations are facing a new funding foe: state government.

The economic downturn has led many state legislatures to chip away – or zero-out all together – taxpayer support of public broadcasting. In January, the Association of Public Television States was reporting a $23 million loss from state budget cuts – with more expected to come. And according to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), about 95 percent of public television stations and 77 percent of radio receive support from the state level.

Some states have successfully recovered funding, such as in Virginia, where Governor Bob McDonnell’s attempt to cut $2.2 million from public broadcasting was quickly restored by the assembly last week. But others, like New Jersey, are facing the end of their public broadcasting funding all together.

As the Progressive States Network points out, this funding cut comes on the heels of rapidly vanishing local reporting in New Jersey:

According to the American Journalism Review, state house news reporting is down 30 percent nationally. New Jersey may be adding to the problem by reducing funding for and privatizing functions of the , the only non-partisan public television and radio news source that exclusively covers the state. To that end, as part of his regressive budget proposal and misguided aim to privatize several areas of government, Gov. Christie is proposing a $4 million cut in direct appropriation and potentially removing almost $7 million in other funding to NJN. At a time when private newspapers in New Jersey are drastically reducing capitol reporting, the Governor's actions could potentially dismantle NJN and threaten non-partisan news coverage in the state.

These cuts would cripple news reporting, according to Dudley Burdge, a union representative for the NJN staff. Not only is a multi-million dollar budget cut at stake, but Gov. Christie is also attempting to relinquish the broadcasting network to a third-party non-profit organization. Burdge believes that this “privatization” could put the station at risk of being swallowed up by neighboring broadcasters --similar to what has already happened in the commercial broadcasting sector:

The formation of a non-profit operator of NJN especially in these hard times will inevitably lead to pressure to merge services and operations with NYC and/or Philly broadcasters that ultimately will endanger New Jersey content. This is illustrated by the decision last August by WHYY, the Philly pubcaster, to end its nightly news show that covered Delaware affairs.

Like New Jersey, Delaware lacks local television coverage and WHYY, whose license is formally assigned to Wilmington, provided that coverage for many years. But when the layoffs and funding cuts that have hit public broadcasting nationally hit WHYY, it pulled the plug on Delaware news in favor or Philly based coverage.

With so little local news coverage in the state, it is critical that the NJN remain funded. In the long-term, New Jersey could transition away from the annual appropriations process on the state level in order to create a dedicated and sustainable funding model. But immediate steps must be taken to ensure that the station does not lose state funding in this legislative session. You can contact Gov. Christie’s office by calling 609-292-6000 to tell him New Jersey deserves local news, too.