Techfun

There is a lot of federal spending that is either ineffective or so inefficient that the money should stay in the federal coffers.  That does not apply to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  In fact, the first four syllable word I knew as a child was Corporation because of the credit that appeared at the end of every episode of Sesame Street. 

 
This famous table from a report by The Program on International Policy Attitudes made some headlines back in 2003 when it was released.  It found that news consumers who got most of their news from NPR and PBS sources were better informed and were FAR less likely to hold misperceptions about the world.  These misperceptions include:

• Saddam Hussein or Iraq was directly involved in September 11
• Saddam Hussein or Iraq gave al-Qaeda substantial support
• Weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq
• International popular opinion favored the U.S. war against Iraq.

 What was so interesting about the study is that political affiliation was not the deciding factor in the study subject’s awareness of the facts.  Both Republican and Democratic NPR/PBS viewers held fewer, if any, misperceptions when compared to people of their own political affiliation who favor commercial news sources for thieir coverage.  The full report is available as a PDF at PIPA’s site.

PIPA studies public opinion on international issues. PIPA is a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes (COPA) and the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM), University of Maryland.

PBS/NPR are a valuable investment for our tax money.

Tell Congress: Reject Bush’s Cuts to Public Broadcasting

This past week, the New York Times reported that the Bush administration has once again proposed deep cuts in federal funding for public broadcasting. Unfortunately the cuts proposed this year are even more severe than in past years — but with your help, we can convince Congress to restore this funding. 

If it seems like we go through this process every year, you’re not mistaken. For eight straight years, the President’s budget requests have attempted to cut or entirely eliminate funding for public broadcasting. For seven of those years, Congress has responded to massive public pressure and restored the funding. Let’s convince them to do it again.

This year’s proposed cuts are the deepest ever proposed by the administration. Even Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee who currently serves as the President of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), has called these cuts "draconian." In addition to slashing current and future funding, this year’s proposal even tries to go back and withdraw funding already approved in previous years. 

Practically every day we hear a new story about media consolidation. More and more, the free press that is so essential to our democracy is owned and controlled by a smaller and smaller number of mega-corporations. Never has it been more essential to have a publicly funded, noncommercial media outlet that provides thoughtful rather than partisan news and doesn’t waste our time covering Britney Spears and the baseball steroids scandal. 

In his last year in office, don’t let Bush pull the plug on Bill Moyers, the NewsHour, Big Bird, and the Cookie Monster. Please read the petition below and then sign at right to tell Congress: fund public broadcasting.