Using emergency procedures, House Republicans voted last week to eliminate the $5 million appropriation for public radio. That amounts to one ten-thousandth of 1 percent of the federal budget.
The effect on federal spending, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office calculated, would be zero.
In Washington, as in Kansas, the vendetta against public broadcasting is ideological, not fiscal.
Conservative Republicans have had their long knives out for PBS radio and television for years. The fact is that they don’t like broadcasting that isn’t financed by big business. (And if you don’t understand that the advertising that pays for commercial television and talk radio comes from big, big business then you aren’t watching the NCAA tournament very carefully.)
But isn’t PBS run by liberals? And classical music loving liberals at that?
Well, it is true that in Kansas, at least, the only radio stations with regular classical music segments are PBS stations. But some of my best Republican friends really like Mozart, Bach and the blues. Sorry, I meant to say Beethoven. When the music goes away, won’t they feel the loss, too?
As to the color of the news. PBS does a pretty good job of being objective compared to the commercial alternative.
The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, a native of Wichita, does a fantastic job of bringing newsmakers like Sec. of State Hillary Clinton and other members of the president’s cabinet onto his show to give viewers a chance to learn about their personalities as well as to hear them explain what they are doing as they help run your government.
Major issues before Congress are frequently discussed pro and con by a Democrat and a Republican who are involved in the decision-making.
It is true that public broadcasting is thin on sports, weather and the sex lives of celebrities. It is also true that you will never hear a PBS reporter make critical or sarcastic comments about public officials on the air or, for that matter, to speak much above a conversational tone whatever the subject. They really aren’t dramatic, but it’s difficult to be all things to all people.
On the other hand, PBS is likely to tell you what you already know about the effect eliminating their funding will have on the budget. Nothing at all. But what losing that $5 million may do is to cut back on the amount of information being broadcast to all of the people about what goes on in this wonderful land of ours. And that’s a significant negative.
The House vote isn’t the last vote. The Senate is likely to keep PBS alive. The president, who is said to like the blues, may find a way to veto the cut. If you have feelings about the matter, drop a line to Sen. Jerry Moran, Sen. Pat Roberts and President Obama. They really do care what you think.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
