POLITICS: Let Congress Keep Its Chump Change

While I'm a big fan of PBS, CPB and NPR, and I support my local affiliates, I have to say that when I heard that Congress will likely vote on cutting off the federal funding to those three, I considered the possiblity it might not be all that bad a thing.

For one thing, absent from all arguments I've read, pro and con, is an accurate accounting of what percentage of each entity's funding comes from the federal government. I suspect it's less than 20 percent in most cases. I seem to remember my favorite NPR station saying a couple of years ago that it was only 7 percent of their revenues, and that the rest all came from grants from foundations, and from "listener support." If what I suspect is correct about funding for public broadcasting, let Congress keep its chump change. A 20-percent blow to the revenues of any company, even a non-profit one, is painful, sure, but for a well-run organization, not terminal.

I'd rather see public radio and public television commit the resources they devote to lobbying Congress for funding to writing grant applications to private foundations. And if it means they have to hold membership drives and on-air auctions quarterly instead of twice-a-year, I'll put up with it. I'd rather see (or hear) that than have political forces in Congress constantly holding this sword of Damacles over the whole thing.

Cutting off funding for public broadcasting is an obvious attempt by partisan forces to manipulate the message, but it could easily backfire on them. Public broadcasting divorced from Congress might end up as a MORE independent and powerful voice than it is now.

Be careful what you ask for, right-wingers. You may get it.