Public radio set free

Trump warned Republicans in Congress: 

     "Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement." 

         

Federal funding is ending. Some programming will be cut. Some smaller stations will close. 

But public radio and television will continue. 

A Harris poll found that 66 percent of Americans supported funding of public radio and considered it a good value; 58 percent of Republicans, 77 percent of Democrats. For decades it had critical support in Congress from Republicans representing rural states, especially Alaska, where public radio stations are the primary source of news in some small communities. But the end of federal funding has long been rumored and feared; it finally came.

My local public radio station, Jefferson Public Radio, wrote on its website that the cut put an immediate $525,000 hole in its budget. So, like radio stations nationwide, it is reaching out seeking voluntary support from its audience:

Listener support has always been the backbone of our work and service to the region, providing the vast majority of our funding. It is now more critical than ever.

Ron Kramer is a pioneer and builder of public radio stations. He created the Jefferson Public Radio network of stations throughout SW Oregon and Northern California. His writes that the loss of federal funding takes some handcuffs off public broadcasting. 

Kramer worked in broadcasting at both local stations and the ABC Radio Network for over 50 years, was executive director of Southern Oregon’s Jefferson Public Radio for 38 years, and co-founded Medford’s ABC television station. He taught broadcasting and media history at Lewis and Clark College and Southern Oregon University. In 2002 the Oregon Association of Broadcasters commissioned him to write “Pioneer Mikes: A History of Broadcasting in Oregon.”

Kramer: photo by KOBI-TV

Guest Post by Ron Kramer

The Right Idea … the Wrong Execution

In 1982 then-NPR President Frank Mankiewicz announced the “Off the Fix by 86” plan, an ambitious attempt to replace federal public funding – funneled through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – with new privately generated income. The plan involved using then-cutting-edge technology to partner NPR with various businesses providing digitally transmitted information, useful to a variety of commercial entities, using excess capacity of the then-new and state of the art satellite transmission technology.

It was a flaming disaster, cost Mankiewicz his job and nearly bankrupted NPR. But the idea of releasing public radio’s dependance on federal funding was sound. Mankiewicz foresaw the possibility (I would argue likelihood) that the GOP’s growing political vendetta against public broadcasting would eventually lead to the end of federal funding unless public media capitulated to political pressures.

I always believed that federal funding for public radio would eventually end. I just wasn’t sure about how and when. In fact, it has proven more brutal and ugly than I could have imagined.

However, like a lot of other things being undertaken by the current administration, this was not well thought out and may well prove a Pyrrhic “victory.”

Federal funding of public radio has always provided guarantees against slanted news coverage. Virtually alone among news networks, NPR created an ombudsman to review complaints over biased coverage. Renamed NPR’s Public Editor, that function continues.

So there has always been a viable path to question NPR coverage anyone considers biased. I have sat in meetings at NPR in which alleged bias in a given story was reviewed. On examination, the coverage always was found fair and balanced, both sides being within mere seconds of equal treatment.

But there’s an important point in that. Public radio accepts federal funding under a statutory condition requiring recipients subscribe to a “fair and balanced” commitment in news reporting. Indeed, that “fair and balanced” obligation has never been litigated and is often considered to be unconstitutional. Ending federal funding erases that statutory obligation. And without it, any federal pursuit or complaint over “fair and balanced” smack dab into the First Amendment.

Many public radio stations will not pursue any enhanced political agenda because they are owned by colleges which are potentially subject to political pressure. But half of the nation’s public radio stations are entirely independent NGOs and, as such, are free to editorialize and cover world events as they see fit.

MAGA may come to regret releasing public radio from a “fair and balanced” news commitment (which is admittedly entirely subjective). Public radio is now free to pursue news coverage without seeking to do so behind that fig leaf – and public radio has large audiences.

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