Save NPR, for Real

[Lazaro Vega]

Subject: This time, it's for real: Save NPR and PBS
Hi,

You know that email petition that keeps circulating about how Congress is slashing funding for NPR and PBS? Well, now it's actually true. (Really. Check at the bottom if you don't believe me.)

Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS:

http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

A House panel has voted to eliminate all public funding for NPR and PBS, starting with "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," and other commercial-free children's shows. If approved, this would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting, threatening to pull the plug on Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch.

The cuts would slash 25% of the federal funding this year—$100 million—and end funding altogether within two years. The loss could kill beloved children's shows like "Clifford the Big Red Dog," "Arthur," and "Postcards from Buster." Rural stations and those serving low-income communities might not survive. Other stations would have to increase corporate sponsorships.

Already, 300,000 people have signed the petition. Can you help us reach 400,000 signatures today?

http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Thanks!

P.S. Read the Washington Post report on the threat to NPR and PBS at:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=745

[Slurpy]

Originally Posted by Lazaro Vega

A House panel has voted to eliminate all public funding for NPR and PBS, starting with "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," and other commercial-free children's shows. If approved, this would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting, threatening to pull the plug on Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch.

Natch, what with their promotion of the homosexual agenda.

[RainyDay]

My cousin runs a PBS radio and television station and we talked over the weekend. My cousin said it is for real this time and people better start contacting their congresspersons now. The current administration is out to kill PBS and NPR.

[Monte Smith]

It's time for PBS programming to survive in the marketplace. That shouldn't be so hard to do, what with the gazillions they got from Ray Kroc's widow and others, as well as the gazillions they make from sales of Elmo dolls et al. They are surely one of the premier toy brands in America. As well as contributions from viewers like you. And if they don't survive in the marketplace, there are other stations to watch. George Will said it well the other day on C-Span (a network that is more important in public discourse than PBS ever was and which is privately funded): "PBS is a public entity that at its acme increased the American citizen's choice of television stations from 3 to 4. If we can't kill it, what government program CAN we kill?" (Paraphrased).

[Dr Dave]

Time to let Public Broadcasting go. In the current climate, it can only survive as yet another channel for Bush Administration propaganda. So let it go. Monte is right, let them operate as a commercial channel. They've proved the viability of their programming, they'll probably be able to continue. They're already accepting advertising, might as well go whole hog.

Seriously, I'd hate to see PBS and NPR become the equivalents of the old Pravda, which is what would happen were public funding to continue.

[Gentle Giant]

I'm just glad that it's been noted that the annoying email petition that's been circulating for years was horseshit.

I've championed PBS for years in this space. Too burned out to continue. Suffice to say, you'd note the loss were it to either die or go commercial.

[RainyDay]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

Time to let Public Broadcasting go. In the current climate, it can only survive as yet another channel for Bush Administration propaganda. So let it go. Monte is right, let them operate as a commercial channel. They've proved the viability of their programming, they'll probably be able to continue. They're already accepting advertising, might as well go whole hog.

Seriously, I'd hate to see PBS and NPR become the equivalents of the old Pravda, which is what would happen were public funding to continue.

Yeah, I don't need my commercial free, 24-hour, jazz radio station. Let them compete in the open marketplace against Clear Channel. I don't need all those shows about culture and history. The networks do a great job covering all those things and so does cable. Who needs PBS when we have A&E, CBS, and Bravo? Don't have access to cable or can't afford it? Tough shit.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by RainyDay

Don't have access to cable or can't afford it? Tough shit.

Or you might try turning off the TV and reading a book. By the way, when did quality television become not a good but a right?

[RainyDay]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

Or you might try turning off the TV and reading a book. By the way, when did quality television become not a good but a right?

I just wrote something over on our police chat group about certain kinds of BS regarding an ongoing activity that has the city up in arms. The thing that just amazes me is how people with resources, who have the good stuff in life, can decide that the other guy isn't entitled to it. Monte, you continue to be nothing but a piece of work. Carry on, or whatever it is you do.

Originally Posted by Whinyday

The thing that just amazes me is how people with resources, who have the good stuff in life, can decide that the other guy isn't entitled to it.

You can have anything you want. But if you're going to sit back and bitch until somebody gives it to you, it's going to be a long wait.

Poor little you.........

[crawjo]

I can't say that I watch PBS much or listen to NPR much, but I think there is still a place for public broadcasting. I don't think there is any danger of either PBS or NPR becoming a mouthpiece for the Bush administration, and it seems to me that both PBS and NPR offer good things to their listeners/viewers. I am sure they could survive in the marketplace, but the marketplace tends to do very ugly things to those that submit to it.

What with the massive amounts of spending that the Bush administration has authorized in the last five years, are we now going to hold the line at financing PBS and NPR? A little sanity is in order, please.

[Lazaro Vega]

Non-commercial music, such as jazz, classical and folk, have by and large survived outside of the star system. Commercial television and radio completely survive on the star system and the result is like putting a ring in the bull's nose: commercial broadcast media is ineffectual as relates to the consolidation of power by the wealthy few.

George Will and righties do not for a minute understand that without supporting culture you get not culture: the elements in Hollywood and popular music they continually villify -- the lack of morals, the dominance of sex, embracing violence as a means to stardom, these are the tools of commercialism. Commercial broadcasting has nothing to do with talent. It is a star based system that rewards fart jokes (Howard Stern) and propagandistic junkie gas bags (Rush Limbaugh) as millionaires.

That you can still turn on a National Public Radio affiliate such as Blue Lake Public Radio from Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, the international summer school for the arts, and hear Mozart or Louis Armstrong, Xenakis or Anthony Braxton is something you will never, ever hear a commercial music station do. And you're fine with that? Ignorance is bliss. And ignorant people are far easier to manipulate.

Commercial radio stations are by and large not local radio stations: they do not serve the market they are in. Witness the recent inability for several communities to access their local Emergency Alert Systems to notify the public about chlorine gas spills, tornados and deadly fires because the station owners with their robot stations do not give two cents about the people in the community they serve. Protecting them was an after thought thay slipped through the cracks. The only thing they care to do is make money and, if you're paying attention at all, they're failing, miserably, because people hate what radio has become. Commercial radio in the top down, single ownership of multiple stations is a poor business model.

I'd rather see their license revoked on the grounds of overbearing stupidity, lack of a workable business model, callous disregard for the community, and very poor taste in music.

You get rid of NPR, you'll have more crap. That's all. As relates to Mass Market appeal. There are all kinds of internet options, satellite, but that is not as equitable as good old low tech radio. The medium is made to be a local service. Radio is a mom and pop world, but America, George Will's America, is all about the destructive power of Wal Mart's model.

So, what do you say? Let's trade in your John Coltrane collection for every single, MP3, poster and photo of Brittney Spears because, by the logic used above, she is far more valuable to society as she propagates an industry.

Jazz sales suck, and by your logic, then, the music deserves to die. How completely un-American.

You say, "If it ain't about greed, then it can't be worth perserving with MY money. Gimme more greed! I support greed!!!"

If you hate America so much why not just leave: let people who love music have their radio stations, and the rest of you can continue to bath in the endless toilet of commercial radio where killing animals on the air is becoming a new wave of attracting listeners. "Are you ready to meet us for the pig roast? O.K. but first, let's go live where our Bill is standing by with a butcher who's ready to sink a spike into the hog's heart, take it Bill!!!"

The common good. That's what government is there for, not to turn life over to the lowest common denominator and propigate economic class warfare.

Any of the folks reading Jazz Corner, that's right, JAZZ CORNER, not Rush Limbaugh and George Will corner, write your congress people and silence these numb skull minority idiots and their insistence on stupidy as a productive business model.

And then send them a letter asking them to revoke these untenable tax cuts. You want to fix the money problem, get rid of the Bush tax cuts, not NPR, not classical, jazz and folk music.

[tristano's ghost]

Originally Posted by Lazaro Vega

Non-commercial music, such as jazz, classical and folk, have by and large survived outside of the star system. Commercial television and radio completely survive on the star system and the result is like putting a ring in the bull's nose: commercial broadcast media is ineffectual as relates to the consolidation of power by the wealthy few.

George Will and righties do not for a minute understand that without supporting culture you get not culture: the elements in Hollywood and popular music they continually villify -- the lack of morals, the dominance of sex, embracing violence as a means to stardom, these are the tools of commercialism. Commercial broadcasting has nothing to do with talent. It is a star based system that rewards fart jokes (Howard Stern) and propagandistic junkie gas bags (Rush Limbaugh) as millionaires.

That you can still turn on a National Public Radio affiliate such as Blue Lake Public Radio from Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, the international summer school for the arts, and hear Mozart or Louis Armstrong, Xenakis or Anthony Braxton is something you will never, ever hear a commercial music station do. And you're fine with that? Ignorance is bliss. And ignorant people are far easier to manipulate.

Commercial radio stations are by and large not local radio stations: they do not serve the market they are in. Witness the recent inability for several communities to access their local Emergency Alert Systems to notify the public about chlorine gas spills, tornados and deadly fires because the station owners with their robot stations do not give two cents about the people in the community they serve. Protecting them was an after thought thay slipped through the cracks. The only thing they care to do is make money and, if you're paying attention at all, they're failing, miserably, because people hate what radio has become. Commercial radio in the top down, single ownership of multiple stations is a poor business model.

I'd rather see their license revoked on the grounds of overbearing stupidity, lack of a workable business model, callous disregard for the community, and very poor taste in music.

You get rid of NPR, you'll have more crap. That's all. As relates to Mass Market appeal. There are all kinds of internet options, satellite, but that is not as equitable as good old low tech radio. The medium is made to be a local service. Radio is a mom and pop world, but America, George Will's America, is all about the destructive power of Wal Mart's model.

So, what do you say? Let's trade in your John Coltrane collection for every single, MP3, poster and photo of Brittney Spears because, by the logic used above, she is far more valuable to society as she propagates an industry.

Jazz sales suck, and by your logic, then, the music deserves to die. How completely un-American.

You say, "If it ain't about greed, then it can't be worth perserving with MY money. Gimme more greed! I support greed!!!"

If you hate America so much why not just leave: let people who love music have their radio stations, and the rest of you can continue to bath in the endless toilet of commercial radio where killing animals on the air is becoming a new wave of attracting listeners. "Are you ready to meet us for the pig roast? O.K. but first, let's go live where our Bill is standing by with a butcher who's ready to sink a spike into the hog's heart, take it Bill!!!"

The common good. That's what government is there for, not to turn life over to the lowest common denominator and propigate economic class warfare.

Any of the folks reading Jazz Corner, that's right, JAZZ CORNER, not Rush Limbaugh and George Will corner, write your congress people and silence these numb skull minority idiots and their insistence on stupidy as a productive business model.

And then send them a letter asking them to revoke these untenable tax cuts. You want to fix the money problem, get rid of the Bush tax cuts, not NPR, not classical, jazz and folk music.

Exactly. The whole idea of the CPB was to establish a media entity that was not answerable to either the government or the marketplace. That, of course, goes against the entire grain of our current leadership... therefore, they have decided to destroy it.

The threat is definitely real this time...Tomlinson is not even trying to restore the funding. Please contact your Congressperson if you care about public broadcasting, particularly if he or she serves on an Appropriations committee.

BTW, NPR receives only 1-2% of its funding from the CPB. It is the member stations that are dependent... and that will be devastated, in many cases put out of business, if Congress goes through with this plan to abolish funding that was already approved.

Originally Posted by TG

The whole idea of the CPB was to establish a media entity that was not answerable to either the government or the marketplace.

Please contact your Congressperson if you care about public broadcasting, particularly if he or she serves on an Appropriations committee.

...put out of business, if Congress goes through with this plan to abolish funding......

I love it.

[tristano's ghost]

I'm sorry that you see such statements as some sort of bizarre conundrum. President Lyndon B. Johnson, upon signing the act that created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1967:

The Corporation will assist stations and producers who aim for the best in broadcasting good music, in broadcasting exciting plays, and in broadcasting reports on the whole fascinating range of human activity. It will try to prove that what educates can also be exciting.

It will get part of its support from our Government. But it will be carefully guarded from Government or from party control. It will be free, and it will be independent--and it will belong to all of our people.

Full text here.

[Paul B]

I've never understood the notion--thoroughly misguided as it is--held by the right (home of the misguided notion) that everything must survive in the "marketplace." In the end, what it really means is that they only want the wealthy to survive and the rest of the world (gotta agree with Rainy on that) to go to hell.

Bye-ya

Originally Posted by tristano's ghost

I'm sorry that you see such statements as some sort of bizarre conundrum. President Lyndon B. Johnson, upon signing the act that created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1967:


Full text here.

Guess Johnson had never met Bill Moyers at that point?

[graypencil]

Originally Posted by Lazaro Vega

Non-commercial music, such as jazz, classical and folk, have by and large survived outside of the star system.

snip ...

George Will and righties do not for a minute understand that without supporting culture you get not culture: the elements in Hollywood and popular music they continually villify -- the lack of morals, the dominance of sex, embracing violence as a means to stardom, these are the tools of commercialism. Commercial broadcasting has nothing to do with talent. It is a star based system that rewards fart jokes (Howard Stern) and propagandistic junkie gas bags (Rush Limbaugh) as millionaires.

That you can still turn on a National Public Radio affiliate such as Blue Lake Public Radio from Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, the international summer school for the arts, and hear Mozart or Louis Armstrong, Xenakis or Anthony Braxton is something you will never, ever hear a commercial music station do. And you're fine with that? Ignorance is bliss. And ignorant people are far easier to manipulate.

Commercial radio stations are by and large not local radio stations:Commercial radio in the top down, single ownership of multiple stations is a poor business model.

You get rid of NPR, you'll have more crap. That's all.

snip ..


So, what do you say? Let's trade in your John Coltrane collection for every single, MP3, poster and photo of Brittney Spears because, by the logic used above, she is far more valuable to society as she propagates an industry.

Jazz sales suck, and by your logic, then, the music deserves to die. How completely un-American.

snip ...

Any of the folks reading Jazz Corner, that's right, JAZZ CORNER, not Rush Limbaugh and George Will corner, write your congress people and silence these numb skull minority idiots and their insistence on stupidy as a productive business model.

And then send them a letter asking them to revoke these untenable tax cuts. You want to fix the money problem, get rid of the Bush tax cuts, not NPR, not classical, jazz and folk music.

Lazaro speaks the truth ..another point to remember ..the corporate owned media chains that defecate all over the broadcast bandwith are for the most part automated operations that keep pumping out repeats of the same top 20 to 40 globs of musical feces that the corporate recording industry wants pushed that month. very few local humans are employed ..its all a transmitter and a computer/automated playback system.

NPR/ CPB whatever ..it's the last bastion of decent music on open radio ..and y'all be squealing yer butts off if it goes away.

[Dr Dave]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

You can have anything you want. But if you're going to sit back and bitch until somebody gives it to you, it's going to be a long wait.

Poor little you.........

You're right, Scott. Now, imagine what it would mean to Take It. If you could control PBS content without the government connection, you'd be one powerful motherfucker. Unfortunately, if you could control PBS content WITH the government connection...why, then you'd be the President of the United States. That's why I think it's time to shut PBS down.

Don't get me wrong, Rainy: You're absolutely right, it is easy for people who have privileges they take for granted and therefore don't really understand to have a cavelier attitude. I've got mine, go get yours. But other attitudes are possible: Like being grateful for your rights and seeing that it is important that those who have been denied your privileges might conceivably deserve them too...And it is true: White people, no matter how good their intentions, have a lot to learn about being Number Two.

[Gentle Giant]

Originally Posted by Paul B

I've never understood the notion--thoroughly misguided as it is--held by the right (home of the misguided notion) that everything must survive in the "marketplace." In the end, what it really means is that they only want the wealthy to survive and the rest of the world (gotta agree with Rainy on that) to go to hell.

Bye-ya

Amen. In case anyone hasn't noticed, the "marketplace" is full of fucking idiots. I don't want some core bloc of MOR trash in the heartland dictating how and in what format I consume my arts and informaiton programming.

[Lazaro Vega]

Look, WGN, Chicago, is a model of how to run a commercial radio station with integrity. And WGN's late night Steve and Johnnie are commercial media spending some real time, not just attention, but time and understanding on Les Paul's birthday celebrations. I heard Paul call them live at 3 a.m. New York time following his induction into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. History was speaking through the radio for 20 minutes, at least, until Paul just plain ran out of gas. Amazing guy. That was on a commercial station.

And on the way into work tonight I heard the Piston's live from Auburn Hills on the Farmer Jack Radio Network. Love it. Love hearing Michigan State and U of M Football, well, I'd rather hear U of M swimming, but that's as likely as their university station going 24-hour jazz. They found the love with NPR News and Talk.

When "Michigan Radio" (U of M) sold their vast historic classical music library it wasn't bought by an American, I'm pretty sure it went to a collector in Germany. I wonder if their jazz collection of 78 rpm's, so carefully maintained by Hazen Schumacher over an entire career, had a similar fate or is still available to musicians and students? A doctor in our radio audience, a respected collector named Richard Brill, passed away, God Bless him, but when he did his complete collection of the French Columbia Ellington lps, remember those gatefold beauties, was purchased by a European. By the way, do you have Ellington's Columbia music in the 1930's? Complete master takes? I got mine on European re-issues at premium prices.

So who does George Will or anyone think is going to come out of the multi-million dollar class in American and keep jazz and classical music on the radio the once NPR's network of member stations is withered to financial ruin?

For that matter, where's the back up plan for the Right's ability to limit abortions? Where's the second half of either idea? Who's going to care for the unwanted babies?

So, the really, really maddening thing about it is their "class," the ownership corporate class, the people Will has so much faith in, what did they do with the valuable treasure trove of American culture and musical history wrapped up in catalogues of the great American record companies? Throughout the 1980's they sold them to the Germans, Japanese or highest bidders, few of whom were Americans.

I'd rather not deal with Bessie Smith as a commodity. I find other value in the recordings of Miles Davis than those measured on a ledger sheet of fiscal assets or liabilities. That's someone else's job. Yet that is how the Right wants you to view art: as a commodity. Like pigs, and beans to the river.

You know I don't believe that. Must be about something else, like silencing a phantom opposition. Put your hands out about chest level and act like you're weighing two things: Iraq, or NPR. Then shrug as if to say, 'Same difference; we'll do what we want first and let history sort it out after the fact. By then it won't matter and no one will be able to do anything about it anyway.'

Different tactics, but same impulse. Ultimately this legislation isn't about culture, it's about NPR news and it's popularity, about quieting something because the political right does not have complete, unwavering control of what is said on NPR. Since the Republicans are the government, not the people, apparently, they're just going to keep bringing this up until they earn the right to take away Grand Rapids, Michigan's ability to hear it's own symphony on the radio.

No, it is not going to be heard on commercial radio: the commercial station that broadcast the GRSO folded, went to an oldies format and pissed off a large segment of the population, 5,000 people a weekend who hear the symphony in season. Blue Lake just did a live broadcast of the GRSO from Carnegie Hall. Needless to say, it was an "exclusive."

There are those who say NPR's cultural programming is all the same and lacks experimentation. That is not true of the local affiliates in Michigan. WDET and the Rebirth Organization (Wendell Harrison) show how well live music and radio fit together in a series in Detroit that has plans to present Cedar Walton and Larry Willis with Detroit musicians in the coming year.

In fact, I could go on about live jazz and experimental music on the radio in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Grand Rapids -- all over the place, but what's the use: the people who think Nancy Regan is a murderer because she's for stem cell research have something else to say.

In any case, why does anyone around jazz give George Will the time of day when Dave Brubeck is still breathing air? Will is a slick writer with his own voice and style, but content? His content is easily viewed as malleable and controllable. Brubeck's isn't. Which is to say if you're looking for truth about the human condition and expect honesty from Will then you deserve each other. I'll take the gifts of an honest human communication that has an intrinsic value beyond craft or marketability.

We need more jazz on the radio, not less.

[moneyp]

I don't watch PBS, but I would miss NPR. It's the only damned radio station around these parts worth listening to in the morning. What else do we have? Idiotic morning DJs and Neil fucking Boortz. (Monte: "Why don't you listen to a book on tape, Mone?") And tons of commercials. I like Marketwatch at 6:30 as well. Great show.

Then again, a couple of days ago they devoted a ten-minute segment to a house in Alaska that had an eagle crash through their window. Maybe their funding should be cut.

[clinthopson]

IMHO PBS has brought this on itself.

With its relentless membership drives loaded with the umpteenth rerun of dead performers, self help lecturers and other lightweight content it turned a lot of us off long ago.

If it weren't for the Brit imports, a huge portion of the broadcast time would be vacant.

On top of that, PBS has become very cowardly in presenting any programs that may offend its corporate sponsors.

I'm afraid that original promise of PBS has disappeared.

All the pity.

[tippy]

PBS is the only station on non-cable tv where there's the possibility of running into something inspirational. I'll be sad to see it go. Two of my favorite shows last year were Gustave the Crocodile and a documentary on Cuban Rumba. Last night I watched "Being Tristan" about a tenor (Mark Eaton) wanting to sing Wagner's Tristan so he independently undertook a production of "Tristan und Isolde" himself resulting in a non-staged version recorded with an orchestra in Bulgaria. It was cool--favorite quote was about--wish I could remember it--how hard it is in classical music to get anyone to support anyone or anything because they generally like to be dissatisfied and then wonder why demand for the music they like is steadily decreasing. Wish I could remember the verbatim version but for me that moment alone made the program worthwhile. Also it was great to see the enthusiasm the people of Sofia, Bulgaria had for the undertaking. People on the street would approach the artists--who were surprised for being recognized--with encouraging words. One young lady told the tenor "Only the best sing the best." I love that quote too. Anyway, it's so nice to watch a show like that where the focus is not destroyed every 5-7 minutes. I'll try to get my fill now I guess.

[tristano's ghost]

Things are looking up just a bit, based on what happened yesterday in the House subcommittee... still not good, though, and the problems with Tomlinson politicizing the CPB are not going to go away. He may, however, get busted for violating the Byrd Act.

[Slurpy]

Originally Posted by clinthopson

On top of that, PBS has become very cowardly in presenting any programs that may offend its corporate sponsors.

FWIW, I was offended when I saw Yanni's Live at the Acropolis on PBS.

[jesus marion joseph]

Like Mone, I'm far more of an NPR consumer than PBS (although I do frequent the PBS hi-def channel on TV). I listen to NPR channels for most of the day, both on regular radio and Sirius in my car. Marketwatch is an excellent, concise summary of what's going on with the economy *today*, and they have interesting commentators, including (believe it or not) Robert Reich. I don't agree with everything he says, but he has the gift of being able to explain relatively complex economic principles pretty clearly. Just my $.02.

[Monte Smith]

I am also a big NPR listener. My favorite programs are ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, MARKETPLACE, and THE WORLD. My least favorite program is DIANE REHM. Better than NPR is C-Span radio.

I don't think NPR should go away, I doubt NPR will go away. I think they should get funded by entities other than the taxpayer, which they largely do.

I think PBS should go away.

[Lazaro Vega]

Here's the thing: we're talking about less than one tenth of one percent of the military's budget. $400,000,000 for CPB, $400,000,000,000 for defense.

Why is the discussion even happening? It is a diversion of energy and a waste of time (for the people who care about NPR) and another example of how America's ideals are just messed up.

[tristano's ghost]

Obey's Democratic amendment restored future funds--the 25% cut still stands:

US House panel cuts funding for public television By Richard Cowan
Fri Jun 17, 8:34 AM ET



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House Appropriations Committee approved a bill on Thursday that would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by $100 million, or 25 percent, starting in October.

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The funding cut was included in a massive, $142.5 billion spending bill for health, education and labor programs that still must be passed by the full House and Senate.

Rep. Ralph Regula (news, bio, voting record), an Ohio Republican who crafted the legislation, said 49 federal programs were being eliminated and other funding reduced because of tight spending limits.

Regula's original bill would have eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2008, but a Democratic amendment earmarked $400 million so that public broadcasting could use the money in the future.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides federal funds to the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, a nonprofit organization operated by 348 public television stations in the United States.

Lee Sloan, a spokeswoman for PBS, said smaller public television stations that rely heavily on federal funds would be hardest hit by the cuts, if they become law. She noted that in past funding fights, the Senate has restored funds.

Rep. Edward Markey (news, bio, voting record), a Massachusetts Democrat, said he would try to add funding for public broadcasting on the House floor.

PBS, which made its mark with children's television programs like "Sesame Street" and popular documentaries, has been targeted by congressional Republicans in the past for steep funding reductions. In 1995, House Speaker Newt Gingrich tried to eliminate funding for public television, hoping to turn it into a privately funded operation.

This year, PBS's news shows came under attack for allegedly having a liberal bias -- a charge the group's president denied. Conservatives also complained about a recent children's show in which some of the characters visited a farm in Vermont that was run by a family headed by two women.

Rep. David Obey (news, bio, voting record), a Wisconsin Democrat, said the 25 percent reduction in funding for the coming year would be "disastrous" for public broadcasting, which he said "is the most valuable resource we have for getting quality programing for children."

Reuters/VNU