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Protecting PBS

Runaway partisanship threatens the future of public broadcasting. The help of moderate Republicans is needed to save the valuable cultural resource.

The Bush administration and conservative Republicans in Congress want to strangle the Corporation for Public Broadcasting until it bends more to their political will. They may succeed unless there is a public outcry that rallies moderate Republicans and Democrats to turn back this threat to public broadcasting's future.

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee voted to cut funding for public radio and television by $100-million over two years. The full House could take up the measure as early as Wednesday. Meanwhile Patricia de Stacy Harrison, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, has emerged as the leading candidate for the job of CPB president.

Local public TV stations are particularly concerned about the funding cuts, which could devastate their shoestring budgets. At WEDU-Ch.3 in Tampa, for example, the cuts would force the station to end its Ready to Learn program, which pays a former schoolteacher to instruct parents in poor communities on teaching their children to read. According to CPB estimates, Florida's public TV and radio stations could lose more than $6.5-million, or 45 percent of current grant funding.

In the same way they forced the U.S. Senate to step back from a destructive showdown over filibusters, moderate Republicans again have a key role to play in protecting public broadcasting from the political meddling of CPB chairman Kenneth Tomlinson and his supporters. Tomlinson claims he is seeking ideological balance in programming; House Republicans say - with a straight face - their cuts are about balancing budgets.

The public appears to be on the side of public radio and television. Surveys in 2002 and 2003 commissioned by the CPB found 80 percent of adults value the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio, while 89 percent felt they were a valuable cultural resource. Those numbers offer political cover for Republican lawmakers who are willing to stand up to the runaway partisanship that threatens the home of Sesame Street , NOVA, Morning Edition and much more.

Citizens who value public broadcasting should turn to Republican legislators for help. In Florida, U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Indian Shores holds the No.2 position on the House Appropriations Committee, whose members also include Dave Weldon of Palm Bay and Ander Crenshaw of Jacksonville. In the Senate, Florida's Bill Nelson sits with moderate Republicans such as John McCain of Arizona and Olympia Snowe of Maine on the committee that oversees communications policy. With so many other political fights brewing, advocates for public broadcasting will have to work hard to keep the issue high on the political agenda in Washington.

Republicans tried unsuccessfully a decade ago to end funding for public broadcasting. This time they have more political muscle on Capitol Hill, not to mention a Republican president, and unless the public speaks out, they will deal a crippling blow to public broadcasting's future.

[Last modified June 21, 2005, 02:30:30]