Trump may take an ax to Big Bird’s friends

PBS also cited a Rasmussen Reports survey that found only 21 percent of Americans are in favor of ending taxpayer funding for public broadcasting.

At the time it made the proposal, the Heritage Foundation noted that when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created in 1967, “households faced very limited broadcasting options”.

The federal budget unveiled Thursday would eliminate the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which assists WFYI Public Media, and the National Endowment for the Arts, which has funded 24 Indianapolis arts organizations since 1999.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which this year marks its 50th anniversary, provides educational programming – which can be rare on U.S. television – including seminal children’s show “Sesame Street”.

What is the mission of CPB? The organization divies up the money among hundreds of local public television and radio stations across the USA, which license national programs like NPR’s “All Things Considered”.

But the impact on public media nationwide, Pavelko said, was also a concern.

“The federal investment in public media is vital seed money – especially for stations located in rural America, and those serving underserved populations where the appropriation counts for 40 to 50 percent of their budget”, the CPB said in response to a recent bill that recommended a cut in funding.

The CPB cuts will be felt the most by public radio and TV stations, who serve small towns and rural areas with few or no other free options for local news. The Trump budget would cut 0 million from the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition assistance – precisely the sort of government program a low-income single mother in Detroit would rely on to feed her kids.

Sesame Street, produced today by Sesame Workshop, became a cornerstone for the new PBS-identifying it as “America’s largest classroom”, with the goal of using media to prepare children for educational success and encourage them to learn about the world they live in. GPB is also an integral component of on-the-ground communication efforts in times of crisis and an essential component of homeland security here in Georgia. WIC is a hugely successful program that helps increase birth weights and provides more adequate childhood nutrition.

Shapiro added that the public TV outletsmost vulnerable to cuts are in rural areas likely to have voted for Trump in November.

The cuts, part of Trump’s first federal budget proposal to Congress, would zero out the $445 million annual allocation the CPB receives to underwrite popular programming like Democracy Now! To make up for the loss, WFYI would have to appeal for more private and corporate support.

How is public media taking a stand to protect stations and content, and how can supporters of GPB get involved?

WOUB Public Media’s Radio network provides Emergency Alert System (EAS) including amber alert, messaging to 55 counties throughout southeastern OH, western W.Va., and northeast Kentucky.

How do I voice my concerns to my elected officials?

“The message the president sent right now is that we want to defund those, and there’s completely defensible reasons for doing that”. You’ll be provided with complete contact information for your representatives.

Federal support for public broadcasting has always been a political tug-of-war, with conservatives arguing that programs like “Masterpiece” and “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” should be funded by the free market, not by taxpayers. To everyone who has already given to the spring pledge drive, we thank you. Its programs should draw on the full range of emotion and mood, from the comic to the tragic, that we know in American life.