Alphecca

Taxpayer Funds For NPR

I received an email yesterday from a reader. I won't identify him but I'll quote him:

Dear Jeff Soyer,

I happened to come across your "weekly bias check"
posting of Nov. 22 last year. This is where you
discuss a National Public Radio (NPR) story that
seemed to be biased against certain positions on gun
policy that you promote. You appeared to be most
incensed about the fact that NPR is "partially
taxpayer-funded," as you mentioned it several times.

This claim struck me as suspicious, and indeed it
isn't true.

From http://www.npr.org/about/privatesupport.html:
"NPR is a private, self-supporting media organization
that receives no direct federal funding for general
support." NPR would have little credibility as an
independent, objective news source if it accepted fed
money. Joan Kroc left NPR $200 million in her will,
so they're doing fine financially without government
support.

I'm not interested in your position on gun policy, but
I love NPR and I think you have a responsibility to
tell the truth to the readers of your blog. I think
you should offer a correction in your blog to reflect
the fact that taxpayer money does not fund NPR
"anti-American endeavors."

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

NPR receives part of it's funding ($57 million just a few years ago) from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting. The CPB receives hundreds of millions of dollars per year from the federal government. You can read that in the CPB mission statement here:

link

"By law, 95 percent of the funds allocated to CPB go directly to benefit viewers and listeners, either through Community Service Grants (CSGs) to stations or programming grants to producers or other station-related activities.
[...]
"The balance of funds supports operations and programming to public radio (which totals $57.1 million for FY 1999), education service grants (ESGs), copyright fees, education activities, training, planning and research, and CPB’s administrative costs and system support."

And their whining [press release from CPB] about budget cuts here:

link

"[Note to editors and reporters: Today, the U.S. House Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations Subcommittee agreed to the President’s budget proposal, which provides no new separate funding in FY 04 to public broadcasting for its digital transition or satellite interconnection. Instead, the Subcommittee opted to allow the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to spend up to $100 million (out of its $380 million 2004 general appropriation) to pay for these important priorities. CPB had requested $60 million in FY04 for digital conversion funds and $20 million in interconnection funds, and $410 million for FY 2006.

"Further, the Subcommittee approved only $330 million for CPB’s FY 2006 general appropriation, which if enacted would be a $60 million reduction from CPB’s FY 05 level ($390 million) and $80 million below CPB’s request for 2006."

You can read more here:

link

"The House Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection currently is considering a bill to authorize appropriations for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). H.R. 2384 seeks to increase the CPB's funding from the current fiscal year (FY) 1999 level of $250 million to $300 million for FY 2000 and $340 million for FY 2001 (an increase of 36 percent over FY 1999). And the bill would enable federal appropriations for the CPB to grow to as much as $475 million by FY 2002--a 90 percent increase over current funding levels. Moreover, H.R. 2384 would grant a one-time appropriation of $770 million over the next five years to assist the public broadcasting industry to transition into providing digital television.

"This stunning potential increase in the CPB's budget would amount to an unwarranted waste of tax dollars because the organization's mission is both obsolete and redundant. A broad array of competitors offers Americans nearly identical television program options. But this proposed hike in funding is surprising because, just four years ago, Washington seriously debated reforming and even privatizing the CPB. Instead of automatically increasing the budget of an agency whose services no longer are necessary, legislators should give serious consideration to ending all federal subsidies for a service adequately provided by the free market."

And if you consider the Heritage Foundation to be hopelessly conservatively biased, here's commentary from Slate:

link

"If media activists were serious about public broadcaster independence, they'd take this week's news as a cue to wean public television and radio from the federal government teat. CPB provided 15.3 percent of the $2.3 billion spent by public broadcasters in 2002, with 26 percent coming from station members "like you," 22.8 percent from businesses and foundations, and the remainder mostly from state and local governments and colleges and universities."

In the interests of "truth" I stand by my statements on Alphecca. By the way, the link you sent me below goes to a page not found...

Incidentally, the above is not even counting the support given to NPR by various state governments (such as the NY Council on the Arts, etc).

Best--

--Jeff