As CPB Faces Massive Funding Cuts, A Look Back at the National Media Reform Conference

We turn to the continuing fight over public broadcasting in this country. Today, the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote on drastic cuts to both the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. CPB is the US-tax payer funded agency that funds public media in this country. The proposal to cut funding was authored by Ohio Republican Representative Ralph Regula and would eliminate $100 million in federal funding to CPB. Regula’s proposal also calls for all federal funding for PBS to be eliminated in two years. A House appropriations subcommittee already approved the bill last Thursday.

The Association of Public Television Stations has termed the cuts "so drastic that they will severely impact every public television and radio station’s ability to provide educational, cultural and informational programming in local communities and throughout the nation." Regula has defended the cuts as necessary to avoid reductions in federal support for vocational education, job and medical training.

Also, last week, it was reported that a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee is the leading candidate to take over the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Patricia de Stacy Harrison is reportedly the favored candidate of the CPB’s Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson. Harrison is currently a high-ranking official at the State Department. She was co-chair of the RNC from 1997 until January 2001, helping to raise money for Republican candidates, including George W. Bush.

For more on the state of media, we turn to the National Conference on Media Reform. More than 2,000 people converged on St. Louis to discuss media and democracy in a time of crisis. We go to two guests at the conference who spoke at the opening session.

* Janine Jackson, program director of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting and the host of that organization’s weekly radio show, Counterspin.
* Malkia Cyril, director of the Youth Media Council.

LISTEN ONLINE (and read transcripts)
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/16/1356205