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Dayton
Business Journal…
Bill would end
government funding of NPR
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Editor’s Note: The House
passed the bill on Thursday; it now moves to the Senate.
The House Rules Committee approved new legislation that would eliminate
government funding for National Public Radio but allow the public radio
network’s 764 local affiliate stations to use federal money for
administrative expenses for their day-to-day operations.
U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., introduced H.R. 1076 on Tuesday. The
House is expected to vote on the measure Thursday.
“Taxpayers should not be on the hook for something that is widely
available in the private market,” Lamborn said in a statement. “Like
many Americans, I enjoy much of their programming. I believe that they
can survive, even thrive, in the free market without the crutch of
government subsidies.”
The House passed a three-week stop-gap spending plan Tuesday to fund
the federal government through April 9. That bill contains $50 million
in cuts for NPR’s parent organization, the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting (CPB).
CPB funds part of the annual budget of WYSO Public Radio for the Miami
Valley 91.3 FM. The radio station, located at Antioch University in
Yellow Springs, has eight full-time and two part-time staff members.
The station also is funded by eTech Ohio and nearly 4,000 underwriters
in the Dayton region.
NPR competes against radio stations including Clear Channel
Communications Inc. — which has eight Dayton-area stations — as well as
Cumulus Media Inc., Radio One Inc., Saga Communications Inc. and
Entercom Communications Corp.
H.R. 1, which the House passed last month, rescinded all federal
funding for CPB through the end of this fiscal year. The Senate
rejected that funding bill.
The threats to NPR’s federal funding intensified in the wake of a video
scandal that led to two executives’ resignations last week.
NPR CEO and President Vivian Schiller stepped down after a secretly
taped video surfaced showing Ron Schiller, an NPR fundraising executive
with no relation to Vivian Schiller, criticizing the Tea Party movement
and saying NPR would be better off without government funding.
The video was produced by conservative activist James O’Keefe who had
led Ron Schiller to believe that he was meeting with members of an
Islamic charity. Ron Schiller also resigned last week.
The video incident followed negative publicity caused by the firing of
NPR correspondent Juan Williams after he made comments on Fox News that
he got “worried” and “nervous” when he saw Muslims flying on the same
plane as him.
Read it with links at the Dayton Business Journal
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