It’s Time Elmo Got A Real Job: The Case for Defunding Public Broadcasting
Conn Carroll /
House Republicans are attempting to live up to their pledge to cut $100 billion from the federal government’s current fiscal year 2011 budget. One of the proposed programs placed on the chopping block is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Congress created the CPB under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 to fill an apparent need for additional sources of high-quality informational, educational, and entertainment-oriented television and radio programming. This mission became obsolete long ago. Back in 1999 then-CPB CEO Robert Coonrod defended taxpayer funding for CPB arguing:
Cable’s spending for original production is increasing today at a rate nearly double that of public television. In addition to Discovery [Channel] and its siblings, The History Channel, Home and Garden Television, and A&E, the expansion of cable’s digital tier will give birth to tens if not hundreds of new channels. What impact this tidal wave of content will have on viewers we do not know, but we can predict competition on a level we have never before contemplated.