U.S. Funding for the BBC?

Helle Dale / March 23, 2011

Just what is it with the Obama Administration and state broadcasters? Not content with sticking by NPR after the House of Representatives voted to cut off its funding, it now emerges that the administration has been giving money to the BBC and, according to one report, is considering increasing that aid. Of course, one thing NPR and the Beeb share, apart from being on the public dole, is that they oppose traditional American values. Is that what the Obama Administration likes?

The report by the British newspaper The Guardian that the U.S. State Department will soon give a substantial grant to the BBC World Service provoked understandable outrage and dismay on Capitol Hill, the Voice of America and the Broadcasting Board of Governors, so State rushed out a semi-denial. Yes, State is expecting to receive a British Broadcasting Corporation proposal for aid for Internet circumvention technology directed at breaching China’s Internet censorship, but no, the proposal is not in yet and no decision has been made.

This letter to the editor of the Guardian can be found on the State Department website: (more…)