Press Release
Free Press denounces House move to slash funding for public broadcasting
Contact: Timothy Karr, 201-533-8838
Washington - Free Press, the national, nonpartisan media reform group, denounced today's vote by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education to slash $115 million in federal funding from the budget for public broadcasting, a 23 percent decrease from the previously-approved 2007 appropriation.
"Public broadcasting is once more under attack in Washington by those who would cripple public spirited alternatives to the commercial media and muzzle the critical voices and diverse cultural fare PBS, NPR and other public media offer to Americans," said Free Press cofounder and media scholar Robert W. McChesney.
"The vast majority of citizens support federal funding of public broadcasting - viewing it as among the most worthy uses of their tax dollars," continued McChesney. "Instead of representing their constituents, politicians are pushing through a White House budget that dismantles public media and ignores the priorities of millions of Americans."
The cuts to journalism, educational and community programming at more than one thousand stations threaten the survival of public broadcasting in communities that need it most.
"Americans across the political spectrum aren't willing to abandon public broadcasting, or to allow it to turn it into a purely commercial enterprise," said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press. "Congress must restore full funding to public broadcasting or risk losing a source of news and information that Americans say, in poll after poll, is the most trusted in America."
"Public broadcasting is once more under attack in Washington by those who would cripple public spirited alternatives to the commercial media and muzzle the critical voices and diverse cultural fare PBS, NPR and other public media offer to Americans," said Free Press cofounder and media scholar Robert W. McChesney.
"The vast majority of citizens support federal funding of public broadcasting - viewing it as among the most worthy uses of their tax dollars," continued McChesney. "Instead of representing their constituents, politicians are pushing through a White House budget that dismantles public media and ignores the priorities of millions of Americans."
The cuts to journalism, educational and community programming at more than one thousand stations threaten the survival of public broadcasting in communities that need it most.
"Americans across the political spectrum aren't willing to abandon public broadcasting, or to allow it to turn it into a purely commercial enterprise," said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press. "Congress must restore full funding to public broadcasting or risk losing a source of news and information that Americans say, in poll after poll, is the most trusted in America."
