Public Media Advocates, Chief Senate Appropriator Believe CPB Will Maintain Funding
Public media advocates, station managers and a Republican senator on the Appropriations Committee told us they believe the CPB will maintain its funding in the face of President Donald Trump’s FY 2018 budget proposal. A huge national campaign is drumming up support for meeting CPB’s funding request, including an online petition asking legislators to support public media that’s up to more than 250,000 signatures, said America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) President Patrick Butler. “I’m increasingly confident that we’ll be able to win this battle,” said Butler, conceding the struggle over the budget almost certainly will go on for months. Funding for public media has “strong bipartisan support” in Congress, said Rick Johnson, general manager of WGCU Fort Myers, Florida. “Though I would never want to take that for granted.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
A chief Senate Republican appropriator told us he believes CPB will maintain its funding despite the Trump administration FY 2018 budget proposal. CPB "continues to serve an important need in the country and [I] would expect to see the funding continue, including the transition funding we’re doing right now for the next broadcast technology,” said Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee Chairman Roy Blunt, R-Mo. Blunt oversees the CPB in that role and is also a member of GOP leadership and on the Commerce Committee. He joins Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the chief appropriator in the lower chamber, in resisting the administration stance and allying with CPB (see 1703160060). CPB officials recently testified before House appropriators (see 1703280018).
The public media pushback against Trump’s budget is based on a national campaign called “Protect My Public Media” that is a combined effort from APTS and NPR, Butler said. The campaign includes a “more comprehensive” social media effort than public media previously have used, Butler said, and has led to over 180,000 “recruits” prepared to contact their legislators on public media’s behalf. “We are off to a very good start,” Butler said. The campaign is showing “great results on Capitol Hill,” and has led to the circulation of letters of support signed by members of Congress, Butler said. “Urge your lawmakers to sign these letters to publicly pledge their support for public media before Friday, April 7, 2017,” says an online form on the campaign website. PBS and NPR didn’t comment for this story.
Allies on the Hill and in the executive branch will be an important part of winning the funding battle, Butler said, adding that efforts are underway to “educate” Trump about the value of public broadcasting. Butler has cited Vice President Mike Pence as a staunch ally of public broadcasting (see 1702270058), and he said the White House budget’s stance on CPB doesn’t mean that has changed. “The vice president doesn’t make the decisions,” Butler said. “We still consider Vice President Pence a champion of public broadcasting.” Public media supporters “will try to get the president on board,” Butler said. “It is clear there are some people in the White House who just don’t want to fund public broadcasting.”
Individual public broadcasting stations and networks are conducting their own efforts to pressure legislators, stations told us. In Florida, most stations are directing their viewers and listeners to the national campaign website, said Johnson, who's also chairman of the board of FPBS, the association of Florida’s public media stations. Johnson wrote a column for WGCU’s viewer magazine urging viewers to support CPB funding, and the station urged viewers to contact Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., who represents WGCU’s district and has indicated support for the Trump budget.
PBS stations that are owned by entities like governments and colleges may have to be more measured in their advocacy, Butler said. But Shae Hopkins, executive director of Kentucky’s statewide public broadcasting system Kentucky Educational Television, has written newspaper commentaries laying out KET’s contributions and urging readers to tell legislators how they feel about public broadcasting. “We are encouraging everyone to contact their U.S. representative and senators to express their views about KET and funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” said Hopkins in a column on Cincinatti.com. “We think it’s important our members are aware of all that we do," said Tim Bischoff, KET senior director-communications.
Though some legislators critical of CPB funding cited specific PBS programming as taking a political stance or unfit for federal funds, Butler said funding discussions have no effect on public media content. “That’s why we have this two-year advance funding cycle, so we aren’t influenced by these kinds of political concerns,” Butler said. "Everyone can have his or her own opinion about a particular program.” Butler said: “The overwhelming majority of American people in every poll ever taken” support funding public broadcasting.