Fence-Sitting: The Good And Bad Of Defunding Public Broadcasting - Eric Rhoads

One would think that as a commercial broadcaster I would look at the potential defunding of NPR as a good thing After all why should public broadcasting have the advantage of government funding when other broadcasters have to survive on our ability to sell advertising especially when it39s tougher than ever to sell Plus that 430 million that goes to public radio and TV would go a long way to reduce the federal budget One might also think my tendency to lean conservative in many things political would make me gungho to close NPR because of its leftleaning contentNot soI39m a fan of NPR and public radio I listen to it for content that no commercial radio broadcaster is providing You know the measured pace the indepth stories the reporters in the field the thoughtprovoking pieces I think we need that option in America though I believe it could be created by commercial radio possibly for a lot less moneyI certainly don39t support NPR39s sometimesskewed representation of opposing political views But as a discerning adult I like hearing viewpoints different from my own and I39m able to make up my own mind Frankly I don39t care if NPR is leftleaning even if I39m notI39d hate to lose public broadcasting and I39d rather find a way to preserve it than shutter it But I39m willing to see NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting lose their funding if it helps get this country out of debt As you can see I39m sitting on the fence and my reasons for not wanting NPR defunded may be different than those of others trying to save itNPR is being threatened with defunding because of its political point of view No one seems to be trying to hide that fact So if it is defunded we can expect retaliation perhaps by way of renewed attacks on Talk radio and a revived quotFairness Doctrinequot the next time the Democrats are in control of the HouseIf public broadcasting were a target only for financial reasons I39d be less impassioned to save it But it39s being targeted because of the politics of the people running it That bugs me Shutting down opposing viewpoints can never be a good ideaPlus as those of us in radio know people are more personally attached to their favorite radio station than to their favorite TV station And frankly I believe the assumption that only liberals like NPR is misguided A significant portion of the NPR listener base is either Republican or Independent and taking it away will merely create a political irritantBut why does this have to be an allornothing proposition What about a hybrid solutionOne option is to put the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR on notice that they have three to five years to become 100 percent selfsufficient They39d get a little less government money each year leading up to a cutoff date That would allow time for them to gain more major benefactors and time to reinvent the way they do business and trim their operating budgets with new technologyThough there is an outcry to save every agency being threatened with cuts my guess is that public radio and TV have a large enough fan base that even if the government slashes their funding they won39t die There are millions of us who have never picked up the phone and given money because we knew our taxes were playing that role More people will chime in when they face the potential lossMy bottom line though is that we need to discourage politicians from doing anything that squelches opposing points of view If that39s the primary reason to defund public broadcasting it39s not good enoughB Eric Rhoads is CEO of Streamline Publishing Inc Rhoads writes regular columns for his publications and is an active blogger in the radio and art industries including Radio Ink Tank Artist Marketing and Blue Chip Gallery Marketing He is an active speaker consultant and advocate in the radio art and technology industries and he sits on a number of advisory boards Eric can be reached at ericRadioInkcomRead all Ericamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Ink Tank with B Eric RhoadsCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerMediaBizBloggers is an openthought leadership blog platform for media marketing and advertising professionals companies and organizations To contribute contact Jackmediadvisorygroupcom The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggerscom are not those of Media Advisory Group its employees or other MediaBizBloggerscom contributors Media Advisory Group accepts no responsibility for the views of MediaBizBloggers authors

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Fence-Sitting: The Good And Bad Of Defunding Public Broadcasting - Eric Rhoads

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