#MittRomney Can't Put #PBS or #BigBird Out of Business - Even as President...Unless Listeners Stop Giving

Will Mitt Make Big Bird Disappear? Turns out cuts in federal funding would hardly make a dent. But why do so few listeners and watchers donate? I don’t have the answer, but let’s take a look at a few of the facts and a real life example.

Mitt Romney “threatened” to cut funding for Jim Lehr and Big Bird – or actually for PBS, but Big Bird has been used as the mascot to upset children around the country.

A silly example:

 

Would we really lose PBS if it did not get federal funding? (Note: there is a difference between federal and “public” funding)

National Public Radio (NPR) faced a similar situation not too long ago...and it is still going strong, because people who listen (the 'public' in ‘public radio’ and ‘public broadcasting’) are the largest portion of donors, and there are many other sources of funding.

I even heard Republican David Schweikert (Arizona Congressional District 6) say in an interview on KJZZ (our local NPR station) say that while he voted to cut national spending, he gives personally to KJZZ. I was impressed, especially since only 8% of listeners do.

I think people should look at and understand the way funding works before they fall for the gimmick (lie) that a lack of federal funding will put public broadcasting under. Government funds only account for 4.6% of NPR funs -real life example -down from 6% in 2009 - which means that 1.4% constitutes the reduction in NPR’s total budget by the cuts in federal funding).

Here’s a great visual: http://www.npr.org/about/aboutnpr/publicradiofinances.html   If we want Public Broadcasting so badly, we should be willing to pay for it - and in fact we do! At least 8% of us do - providing 39% of the budget. And by the way, "big bad corporations" also donate a good-sized chunk to National Public Radio (17%) - much more than the government in fact.

 

“Disclaimer: I do listen and I do give to public radio. I do not watch PBS – because I can’t receive it with my rabbit ear antennae. Which means I don’t “give” to cable either. Interesting that ao many people are up in arms about cutting federal funding to PBS, but don’t give to PBS, while they do give LOTS to commercial cable or satellite companies. Go figure…

Heather J. Kirk

The image says "#New York Times" at the top and has a quote that discusses "#Veterans' Jobs Bill Block in the Senate" on #Facebook

Facebook is a great way to share information with friends - but can also end up passing on false or partial information. Therefore, just like e-mails, I encourage people to check things out!

The image says "New York Times" at the top and has a quote that discusses "Veterans' Jobs Bill Block in the Senate". Since at first blush, it does not seem to be a good move politically for Senate members, I got curious and decided to find and read the article it came from – and why they would not pass a bill to help Veterans.

It appears that things like Snopes, Fact Check or Truth Team are not as unbiased as they used to be. So it's good to go directly to articles quoted, bills discussed or full context of quotes.

I use this example because it is very current and I have seen it many times and decided to do a little research..

#1: It appears to be from a blogger on NYT on-line site. Though not just a random person but a regular NYT blogger, this TruthTeam quote comes from a combination opinion piece /news piece blog. It’s important to understand that blogs and editorials are created for opinions to be expressed, based on the news and current events, but not necessarily unbiased news reports.

#2: It’s always good to read things in context, and get opposing views. So here is a link to the article. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/veterans-jobs-bill-blocked-in-the-senate/

The overall tone is not a whole lot different from the quote, but according to the article, Republicans voted against it specifically because the $1 billion bill was not funded. There does appear to be an expected source of funding, but possibly not attached to this bill. Also saw that the $1 billion would be to create up to 20,000 jobs. That's a minimum of $50,000 to create each job - not even the actual income veterans would receive.

My goal: To encourage people to not just pass along little snippets that sound good. Instead to get involved in the political process by educating and informing themselves. This is just one example of how I chose to do that.

Heather J. Kirk