From time to time, I find myself watching an occasional program on the main so-called public broadcasting TV channel in our area, WGBH, based in Boston. While some of their programming is very entertaining, such as, for example, many of the Masterpiece Theatre dramas, I recently tuned in to an episode of one of their so-called journalistic series, Frontline.
Last night, Frontline ran for 2 hours, essentially broadcasting a hit piece on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginnie. While it was not particularly surprising to see a hit piece against conservatives on public broadcasting, I was struck by their listing of financial contributors to its operation, and more particularly, the prominent mention of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (“CPB”) as one of its financial angels.
This was not the first time I noticed that CPB appeared to be funding programming on WGBH and presumably other so-called public broadcasting stations. So, it got me thinking about the CPB and I became curious to learn more about it.
A simple web search indicated that the CPB receives a substantial portion, or perhaps, most of its funding from me and my fellow taxpayers. Since around 1968.
In the current fiscal year, the CPB received nearly $500 Million in taxpayer funding for its activities. And for next year, it has requested in excess of half a Billion dollars from the taxpayers. I am not making this up.
The taxpayer subsidies to the CPB are, of course, in addition to the funding public broadcasting stations receive from various and sundry foundations (mostly oriented toward the political left) and from their incessant grubbing for contributions from the public at almost every turn.
However, if the programming on so-called public broadcasting stations is good, it should be able to compete in the marketplace with privately-owned broadcasting outlets, by selling advertising, without the necessity of taxpayer funding. Or if public broadcasting does not want to clutter their offerings with advertising, they can adopt the subscription model and attract viewers who are willing to pay personally for the programming, much like people who pay to have access to HBO and other premium channels.
But the overriding question is: is it a proper role of our government to spend taxpayer funds to pick winners and losers in the marketplace for television viewers.
So, when you write your check for your federal taxes, know that a substantial portion of your money is going to support the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And if this disturbs you, contact your federal senators and representatives (Ha, Ha!!) and ask them to de-fund the CPB and make it stand on its own two feet. And you might want to ask potential or actual presidential candidates whether they would support de-funding CPB.
