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Press Release
White House Moves to Slash Funds for Public Broadcasting
Contact: Timothy Karr, 201-533-8838
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's 2007 budget, delivered to Congress on Monday, cuts $103.5 million in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) over the next two years. Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, made the following statement:
"Once again, the Bush administration is ignoring the strong support for public broadcasting. Although these cuts are a miniscule fraction of the federal budget, they could be devastating to local stations and the quality education and news programming treasured by the American public.
"Last summer, millions of Americans called on Congress to reject the Republican leadership's scheme to slash federal support for serious journalism, cultural coverage and children's shows. In response to this overwhelming outcry, Congress restored full funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. But the White House refuses to give up its quest to punish public broadcasters.
"These proposed cuts are just the latest step in a two-pronged strategy to discredit and defund public broadcasting. Having watched Kenneth Tomlinson fail to remake public broadcasting as an administration echo chamber, the White House is trying to strangle CPB funding. The American public needs a clean break from partisan bickering and a redoubled commitment to the true mission of public broadcasting — localism, diversity and community service.
"By ignoring public demands to clean up its act, the CPB board of directors must share some of the blame for creating the political environment in which these cuts are being considered. We need to reform the way the CPB does business and protect long-term funding for public broadcasting from the political whims of Washington once and for all."
"Once again, the Bush administration is ignoring the strong support for public broadcasting. Although these cuts are a miniscule fraction of the federal budget, they could be devastating to local stations and the quality education and news programming treasured by the American public.
"Last summer, millions of Americans called on Congress to reject the Republican leadership's scheme to slash federal support for serious journalism, cultural coverage and children's shows. In response to this overwhelming outcry, Congress restored full funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. But the White House refuses to give up its quest to punish public broadcasters.
"These proposed cuts are just the latest step in a two-pronged strategy to discredit and defund public broadcasting. Having watched Kenneth Tomlinson fail to remake public broadcasting as an administration echo chamber, the White House is trying to strangle CPB funding. The American public needs a clean break from partisan bickering and a redoubled commitment to the true mission of public broadcasting — localism, diversity and community service.
"By ignoring public demands to clean up its act, the CPB board of directors must share some of the blame for creating the political environment in which these cuts are being considered. We need to reform the way the CPB does business and protect long-term funding for public broadcasting from the political whims of Washington once and for all."
