Public broadcast subsidies face ax
By Dennis Camire
Advertiser Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Hawai'i's public television station and two public radio stations could see their federal funding cut by more than $573,000 next year under a bill scheduled for a vote in the House as soon as today.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
"It's absolutely terrible what the administration is trying to do to public broadcasting," said Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawai'i.
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The proposal would cut 25 percent of the $400 million annual federal subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private, nonprofit entity created by Congress to help pay for programming and finance local public TV and radio stations.
Case said he has "come to rely ... on public broadcasting as one of last bastions of true independence, it sometimes seems, in the media world" and he finds it "criminal that public broadcasting is in the sights of the current (Bush) administration." The congressman said it's "imperative that citizens throughout our country" who rely on public broadcasting "rise up and protect it."
If the House and Senate approve the cuts:
• Hawai'i Public Television could lose $421,752 next year, a 44.5 percent cut in money from the federal government.
• Hawai'i Public Radio, which has two FM channels, would lose $106,182 — a 46.4 percent drop.
• KKCR-FM in Hanalei would lose $45,476 or 45 percent.
The spending bill, which will finance labor, health and education programs for next year, also would eliminate more than $100 million for public stations to upgrade their satellite technology, convert to digital programming, and sponsor educational programs for children.
The cuts were made after the Bush administration ordered a 1 percent cut in federal spending on nonsecurity, discretionary programs, forcing lawmakers to propose lower funding for or elimination of scores of health and education programs next year.
The battle lines over public broadcasting have been drawn in sharply partisan fashion: Democrats in Congress and liberal organizations have emerged as public broadcasting's most visible and vocal supporters, while Republicans and conservatives have stayed mostly silent.
Among the groups that have been petitioning Congress on behalf of public broadcasting are a number with a history of liberal advocacy. These include People for the American Way, FreePress, Media Matters and MoveOn.org, which last year raised millions of dollars for ads critical of President Bush's re-election.
Democrats have taken the lead in trying to restore more than $100 million in federal money that was cut by the Republican majority in a House committee last week.
On Tuesday, some 16 senators — all Democrats, Hillary Clinton among them — advocated the removal of Kenneth Tomlinson, the conservative chairman of the agency that passes federal money to public stations, saying he has politicized the nonpartisan Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And 20 House members — all Democrats — signed a letter last week denouncing Tomlinson's choice of Patricia de Stacy Harrison for CPB president, saying the former Republican National Committee co-chairwoman was "a partisan activist."
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, it's hard to find a Republican with anything nice to say about National Public Radio or the Public Broadcasting Service. Instead, they denounce them as liberal and elitist, when they bother to talk about them at all.
Public broadcasters point out that such nonpartisan organizations as the National PTA, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association have recently joined the fight on their side.
Ken Stern, NPR's executive vice president, noted that NPR listeners describe themselves as moderate, conservative and liberal in about equal measure in surveys.
"The public response in the past few days has been extraordinary," he said. "It has changed the political dynamics of this issue."
But that isn't necessarily how prominent Republicans see public broadcasting. In a column in the Wall Street Journal, former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan wrote that "arguing over whether PBS is and has long been politically liberal is like arguing over whether the ocean is and has long been wet. Of course it is, and everyone knows it." Noonan advocated that Washington support public broadcasting — but only if it drops its current-affairs programs and sticks to history and cultural fare.
The Washington Post contributed to this report.
