A Small Victory
Jun 24th, 2005 at 4:51 am by Susie
The House voted to restore funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but it ain’t over yet:
But Elmo and Big Bird remain at risk. The House did not restore all of the public broadcasting funding cuts proposed for 2006. Although yesterday’s amendment — sponsored by Reps. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Jim Leach (R-Iowa) — would bump CPB’s general budget back to $400 million, the 2005 funding level, an additional $102.4 million that had been shorn from separate public broadcasting programs was not restored. That money underwrites the production of such PBS children’s programs as “Sesame Street,” “Arthur” and “Postcards From Buster.” The money that would be cut also pays for satellite technology, basic equipment purchases and a federal mandate program to convert public TV stations from analog transmission to digital signal technology.
“Ultimately, it’s a very significant step but it’s only a step,” said Ken Stern, executive vice president of NPR, referring to the House vote.
He said the money is still not sufficient to meet public broadcasters’ needs. The House funding is lower than the president’s proposed budget of $410 million and down from last year’s total of $400 million, plus $102.4 million in related programs. “If this is the final number, it will pose a lot of hardships on public broadcasting,” Stern said.
This whole funding thing is really not about cutting funding, it’s about intimidation. It’s about making people HAPPY that they end up ONLY turning PBS into a right-wing tool, but look, Big Bird and Elmo are still getting funded so we can’t complain.