That’s right… It has happened. A congressional subcommittee has voted to cut all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting within 2 years.
From the Washington Post:
In addition, the subcommittee acted to eliminate within two years all federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which passes federal funds to public broadcasters — starting with a 25 percent reduction in CPB’s budget for next year, from $400 million to $300 million.
More across the fold…
So what, you say? TV is bad for kids anyhow, right? It is just priming them to become consumers, isn’t it? Well, the PBS kids shows are actually a great way to spread our liberal values. That is the real reason the GOP wants to kill the CPB.
“Americans overwhelmingly see public broadcasting as an unbiased information source,” Rep. David Obey (Wis.), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said in a statement. “Perhaps that’s what the GOP finds so offensive about it. Republican leaders are trying to bring every facet of the federal government under their control. . . . Now they are trying to put their ideological stamp on public broadcasting.”
But the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on labor, health and human services, and education asserted that the panel was simply making choices among various worthy government programs, and that no political message was intended.
The subcommittee’s action, which came on a voice vote, doesn’t necessarily put Big Bird on the Endangered Species List. House members could restore funding as the appropriations bill moves along or, more likely, when the House and Senate meet to reconcile budget legislation later this year. The Senate has traditionally been a stronger ally of public broadcasting than the House, whose former speaker, Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), waged a high-profile but ultimately unsuccessful campaign to “zero out” funding for the CPB a decade ago.
The Democracy Cell Project has a BLOGSWARM on this issue HERE
I posted a diary a month ago on the important work Sesame Street is doing around the world: Culture Wars: How Sesame Street is Helping Save the World
This is exactly what I feared was going to happen when I first heard our RWCM start talking about them having a “liberal slant”.
This kind of thinking has me very worried for my son’s future. Should I now consider homeschooling my child when he’s of age just so that I can be sure that he will be able to think for himself and not have others dictate what he should be thinking/feeling? Because that’s really what’s this is about isn’t it? Can’t have the masses thinking for themselves can we?
And I should also add a thank you for bringing this to my attention. Would add more, however too incensed at this point!
I just bounced here after reading this:
http://www.alternet.org/story/22192/
an article on the growing trend of military training in middle school-I’d say home school, definitely.
I was afraid they’d ax CPB-thinking is a bad thing for the masses now, don’t want them asking pesky questions.
Thanks for bringing that article to my attention. Reading it sent chills up and down my lil ole spine.
Not trying to invoke Godwin’s law here but…the thing that article reminds me of is Hitler’s youth groups.
Lobbyists for public television and radio say they hope to have the money restored in the version of the bill prepared by the Senate, where they have support from several senior Republican members. The final legislation will be the product of negotiations between the House and Senate.
Wishful thinking? I’m interested to know which Republicans will fight this one. Need to google…
Part of me says good. Maybe it will take losing Sesame Street to get people to realize that all these “crazy liberals” that have been trying to warn everyone about BushCo may have been right all along.
Until then, we’ll try and fight it.
Sesame Street actually makes enough money off of merchandising to sustain production, at least here in the U.S. (see my diary linked in the main post). I would think the Sesame Workshop (formerly the Children’s Television Workshop) could probably even find a new outlet to broadcast Sesame Street if PBS shuts down altogether.
Gotta give the GOP credit, at least when then do something they have a concrete goal in mind.
So, looks like they’re setting us up for a classic dilemma:
I think the truth is while #2 might be their preferred goal, they know compromise will prevail. So they’ve set the stage for their real objective:
* Reducing CPB funding to a bare minimum, and use the threat of loss of that funding to take editorial control.
What a great corporate-takeover strategy. Leverage a pittance of the CPB budget to control it 100%.
Why would they give up a subsidized outlet for their idiotic bullshit? The idea here is to scare public broadcasting into knuckling under — pretending that “God” made the world 6000 years ago on their science programs, pretending we’re “winning” the Iraq war, pretending that corporations have nothing but our best interests at heart.
The process has already been effective, especially on public TV, at least around here. They succeeded in reducing NOW to a half-hour shadow of its former self, making the News Hour a nutwing nonsense outlet, toning down Frontline, and filling the schedule with stupid entertainment and gossip shows that are no better than you’d find on Fox or NBC.
Just another price we pay for living in the most rapidly deteriorating society on earth. The Nutwing is like any other pathogen: it wants to make more of itself and destroy everything else. In this case, more organisms as stupid as Bush and all the other Republicans. Near as I can tell, they’ve succeeded beyond all reasonable expectations.
NPR runs a story critical of Merck and look what happens.