Bye-bye Big Bird

The Democracy Cell Project has put the call out to folks and directed them to a Washington Post article about funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting:

A House subcommittee voted yesterday to sharply reduce the federal government's financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children's educational programs as "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," "Arthur" and "Postcards From Buster." 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.

My first thought was, "Good! Once the government stops sending their piddling 15% to public broadcasting they stop having any say in or control over the programming. We can stop this "balanced" coverage which balances the truth of a news story with some right wing blathering lies."

While that may be a good thing (at least in the long run), there is a very important down side to this callous vote. As noted in the WaPo article,

Small public radio stations, particularly those in rural areas and those serving minority audiences, may be the most vulnerable to federal cuts because they currently operate on shoestring budgets.

In some parts of Alaska, NPR is the ONLY radio station which provides important emergency information.

The Democracy Cell Project has asked that we contact members of the House Appropriations Committee (names and communications links located here ) and urge that adequate funding for CPB be found. I join in their call and urge you to send those emails and make those phone calls.

Today.