Public Broadcasting Survival
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In order for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting System to survive and flourish as they have for the last three decades, the issue of funding is of vital importance. Recent efforts by political enemies of PBS to cut funding have forced the issues of government funding and of alternative funding methods onto the national agenda. PBS has responded by considering different ways of bringing in revenues to replace government funding in case such funding is cut. One of the ways being explored is increased corporate funding, even to the point of showing commercials on public television. This challenges the way PBS has always operated, raises questions about continuing viewer support, and might remove the appearance of independence that has marked the network since its inception. To date, PBS has not gone so far as to sell commercials as the broadcast networks have done for decades and as some cable networks do. For a long time, though, PBS has had corporate funding, which meant no more than that the corporation paid for the programming and received a credit in the form of "Funding Provided By" or "Funded By," followed by the name of the corporation. Even this degree of corporate involvement raised a few eyebrows--corporations might fund programs on subjects of particular interest to them and so might be suspected of having brought pressure to shape the program one way or another. An increase in corporate sponsorship or even outright advertisi
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subsidy for public broadcasting in other industrial nations (the U.S. taxpayer pays about $1 a year, the British subject $39), many in Congress believe that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and National Public Radio (NPR) either too costly or too liberal (Bennett 178).
A recent analysis suggests that the threat to public broadcasting began with President Nixon, who was infuriated by the 1970 documentary "Banks and the Poor," which exposed banking practices harmful to the poor in urban areas (Barsamian 7). That documentary also alienated many in Congress because it listed 133 senators and House members with bank holdings or who served on boards of directors for banks. In 1972, Nixon vetoed the authorization bill for the corporation for Public Broadcasting. The chair, president, and director of PBS resigned in protest, after which Nixon signed the bill. The original veto, however, crippled public broadcasting and still does to this day (Bennett 178). This is precisely the concern about increased corporate funding today, that it will mean a reduction in criticism of corporate interests and interference, both direct and indirect, in programming decisions.
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Approximate Word count = 1906
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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