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NARR: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting or CPB has often been the target of efforts to cut its funding. Brooke Gladstone, host and managing editor of the public radio program "On The Media," has covered the CPB for decades.
ACT: GLADSTONE TIME: 0:13
It was supposed to be paid for by the government and yet shielded by the government. From the moment that it was created, there have been efforts to cut it because publicly funded media can be a political football.
NARR: In other words, Republican administrations have typically tried to cut or elimiate funding for the CPB.
ACT: GLADSTONE TIME: 0:27
The conventional wisdom about Republicanism is that it's against big government and public funding for institutions that ought to be able to support themselves. And I think that may be part of the ideological tendency of the Republicans to cut down what they consider to be an unnecessary program. But it causes problems because the public still doesn't feel that way.
NARR: For example, in the past, even Republican Congresses have resisted efforts like this one proposed by President Bush. James Gattuso is a Senior Research Fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. He thinks that funding should be reduced or eliminated.
ACT: GATTUSO TIME: 0:33
There is a basic problem when the government is taking money from citizens to fund speech. Speech is vital to our democracy and certainly is vital to the way our country works. But the government should not be forcing people, in effect, to pay for speech that they may or may not agree with. The practical reason for opposing the funding is actually on the grounds that I believe it hurts public broadcasting itself.
NARR: That's exactly why conservatives think it's a bad idea for government to fund broadcasters: when the government funds something, there are usually strings attached. But Gattuso isn't hopeful that his position is going to carry the day.
Cephas Bowles, the General Manager of Newark, New Jersey public radio, WBGO, says listener support represents the largest source of funding for his station. But CPB funding is still significant.
ACT: BOWLES TIME: 0:21
In the case of WBGO, listener support represents 45% of the station's annual operating budget. CPB's money, as I said earlier, represents somewhere between 12 and 15%. So, you can do the math. We're talking about three times the amount of money must come in from listeners than we get from CPB in order to keep this station afloat.
NARR: As much of the CPB's funding goes directly to local public radio stations, a cut would likely be felt at WBGO.
ACT: BOWLES TIME: 0:17
These funds are used to enables us to hire three staff and to do some basic marketing activities. We allocate the funds differently from year to year, but staff salaries are a very, very important use of these funds.
NARR: Bowles served on the Board of National Public Radio and says if these cuts are to pass, they will have a disproportionate impact on minority and rural broadcasters.
ACT: BOWLES TIME: 0:19
CPB funds account for much more of their general operating budget. Why? Because in many instances the minority stations are located in rural communities. And those rural communities don't have the population base to provide the funding that these stations need to operate.
NARR: Bowles agrees with the Heritage Foundation's Gattuso. He doesn't believe cuts of this magnitude will materialize. And neither does Brooke Gladstone.
ACT: GLADSTONE TIME: 0:21
It seemed to have followed the pattern of previous years, which is a proposal for an enormous cut, screams of pain coming from the public broadcasting industry, troops of people, usually one of them a muppet, arriving on Capitol Hill and most of that money restored.
NARR: The battle in Washington over CPB funding is just beginning. So be on the lookout for a visit by Big Bird to Capitol Hill.
Ivan Dominguez, Columbia Radio News.