The Corporation for Public Broadcasting 9CPB) has been defunded for several weeks now, and the world didn’t end. NPR and PBS continue with their programming, but for how long? CPB, which laundered tax dollars to the achaic and no longer necessary offspring, is decruting and at some point its offices, like those of USAID, will be empty and on the market. Taxpayers won’t be paying for that either. But NPR and PBS can continue; they have to do it on their own.
And they are more than capable. The initial defunding inspired their mostly progressive audience to donate, mostly in protest. And since many a chunk of progressive programming is propped up by deep-pocketed left-leaning foundations, keeping this partisan project perpendicular is not impossible. But is it sustainable?
They’ll never do it because it’s their brand, but PBS and NPR need to change the P from ‘Public’ to ‘Partisan’. Being honest about that has never been a strong suit, and calling themselves National Partisan Radio and the Partisan Broadcasting System will not attract the sort of money they need. No one on the right would give, even in a late-night, PBR-fueled fantasy. And you can’t really call yourself an independent if you donate to partisan enterprises, even if it comes with a lovely tote bag.
I mention the money because the impact won’t be on programming so much as on the affiliates who broadcast it. The Corporation for Partisan Broadcasting’s work was funneling tax dollars to local televisions and radio stations, which then paid staff and “purchased” programming. You can still watch Poldark because it is a BBC program that your local station “rents.” Most of the good PBS television content is. NPR is similar, but it also pretends to be a non-partisan purveyor of news and information.
Both need the CPB funding to remain operational and, in its absence, have to fund locally, and there’s the rub. Do the local affiliates have the kind of ongoing necessary support to maintain their partisan operations, given how readily available their messaging is? They are not providing a unique product or service. Without benefactors and absent its forced subjugation, many locals will have to close up shop.
Public Radio in New Hampshire, for example, sucks up no less than fourteen call numbers.
NHPR Frequencies / Broadcast Stations
107.1 FM Gorham
90.3 FM Colebrook
105.7 FM Colebrook
89.1 FM Concord/Manchester
104.3 FM Dover
91.3 FM Hanover
96.5 FM Holderness
99.5 FM Jackson
90.7 FM Keene
91.9 FM Littleton
88.3 FM Nashua
97.3 FM Plymouth
103.9 FM Portsmouth
The public money is gone, so it is up to the public to keep them going, from their own pockets, if that’s what they want to do. The other option, of course, is to solicit ads to sustain operations like everyone else in radio and television. Is NPR or PBS providing an in-demand product that this model can support?
Perhaps. And PBS has its streaming fee service, Passport. It’s possible. And I’ve no objection to either of them surviving or thriving under their own steam. What I don’t want is for them to stumble along crippled until, at some future date, the government decides to pick our pockets to fund them.
