SUN EDITORIAL:

Saving public airwaves

Why public programming belongs to everyone and deserves to be adequately funded

Monday, March 17, 2008 | 2:04 a.m.

Federal funding for public television and radio would be cut in half in 2009 and 2010 under a budget proposal President Bush issued last month.

The sweeping cuts would slash $200 million from the $400 million Congress has allocated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2009 and cut $220 million from the $420 million Congress planned to allocate in 2010.

In addition, Bush has proposed eliminating any extra funding in 2009 to help public television pay for converting to digital transmission, a conversion that is federally mandated for all TV broadcasting stations.

Officials from the Office of Management and Budget told The New York Times that Bush’s proposed cuts are “consistent with the evolving role of public broadcasting in a market that has benefited from tremendous growth and diversity of programming.”

Granted, cable TV and satellite radio offer a wide variety of educational, cultural and other types of programming that previously were available only on public broadcasting channels. The advent of cable TV has helped to make the quality of programming much better than it used to be.

Nevertheless, commercial TV is driven by advertising and ratings, and stations are beholden to shareholders and the bottom line. As a result, quality programming is not necessarily their top priority.

As a publicly funded entity, public television has more freedom to focus on content and program quality. So public television and radio still offer programs not found anywhere else, such as “Sesame Street” for children, the news analysis of “Frontline” and the superb documentaries by Ken Burns.

Even if most Americans have access to cable television, many still do not. For them, public stations offer the only alternatives.

But the larger issue, beyond viewing choice, is that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s airwaves are owned by the public. As such, they should be supported with public funding.

Discussion: 2 comments so far…

By largebear

3/17/08 at 12:18 p.m.

Suggest removal

I agree completely with the Sun. Why, I can't go a day without pining for Lawrence Welk reruns. (I just love it when they do "Mr. Wonderful"!)

And don't forget Antiques Roadshow or yet still another further different rerun of Are You Being Served. What? The Three Tenors is on again? Must be pledge week!
By avalentiner

3/17/08 at 7:34 p.m.

Suggest removal

What about local COMMUNITY ACCESS PROGRAMMING?

How come we don't have any public access tv stations in Vegas.

No one seems to notice or care. Do you no it costs around $500 to buy 30 minutes of local tv airtime, very expensive for local low budget productions.

A ton of money is collected on behalf of the franchise tax fees cox subsribers have to pay each month. These fees were originally designed to give tv access to the community. There is currently zero acccess to tv programming here in vegas. All money collected is diverted into city/government programming(these departments have rather large budgets too).

I hope one day the local PBS will open its doors to playing more locally produced programming. A lot of talented local stuff never gets a play here.

People believe PBS is vegas community programming, ...hardly. I love PBS but it doesn't provide enough of local producers of tv shows, docs, movies, an outlet that is desparatly for their work to be displayed.

This is another reason why vegas lacks a true sense of community. Other than gambling and expensive neighborhoods what sense of community do we have?
-av

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