New Public Media

Congress is playing politics with a public trust that hundreds of millions of Americans rely on for news, arts and entertainment, and for educational programming for our kids.

Last week, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) introduced two bills that would cut off federal funding for public broadcasting in America by defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by 2013 and immediately eliminating “certain public radio funding.” The bills mirror earlier efforts by Lamborn to defund all public broadcasting.

The legislation was introduced the same day that NPR made public the resignation of Ellen Weiss, NPR’s senior vice president for news, who stepped down after an internal review of the firing of commentator Juan Williams.

Other politicians in Washington are mounting similar attacks against public broadcasting in what’s become a disgraceful attempt to silence what the public says, in poll after poll, are their most trusted sources of news.

Local PBS and NPR stations reach more than 98 percent of American households, and for some communities, they are the only sources of serious local news and information. They also employ thousands of journalists -- at a time when newsrooms around the country are shedding tens of thousands of jobs a year. Leaders in Washington must fight to improve and expand public broadcasting to counteract the collapse of so much commercial journalism and to serve the people corporate media have left behind.

Right now, America's investment in public media is literally pocket change. We spend just $1.43 per capita each year on public media. Meanwhile Canadians spend $27, the British spend $86, and the Danes spend $110. The results are clear: According to a recent study of 14 democratic nations, public media consistently provide more and higher quality public affairs programming and a greater diversity of perspectives than their commercial counterparts.

It’s time our leaders invested in a world-class public media system capable of providing what commercial media outlets don't: hard-hitting, fearless journalism; and exceptional arts and educational programs.