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February 06, 2008

Public Broadcasting Decries Proposed Federal Cuts

For the past seven years, Congress has been able to restore the Bush administration’s proposed cuts in federal money to public broadcasting. But, The New York Times reports, this year may be different.

In its proposed federal budget plan, the Bush administration intends to cut in half the $400-million allocated to public broadcasting for fiscal year 2009 and cut $220-million from the $420-million already planned for 2010. Along with these cuts — the deepest proposed in the past eight years — President Bush intends to eliminate funds for 2011, along with any additional funds in 2009 for stations to convert to digital transmission, which is federally mandated.

Local public-television-station executives, however, not only hope to reinstate the cut funds but also plan to call for an increase when they arrive in Washington next week for a day of lobbying. John Lawson, chief executive of the Association of Public Television Stations, said, “I’m confident we will be successful.”

Ken Stern, chief executive of National Public Radio, was less hopeful. He said that although public broadcasters had been successful in fighting off proposed cuts in past years, he noted that it was “an incredibly tight budget year” and that the fight could be “lost in a whole lot of other issues.”

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