Saving public airwaves

SAVING PUBLIC AIRWAVES
[SOURCE: Las Vegas Sun, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Federal funding for public television and radio would be cut in half in 2009 and 2010 under a budget proposal President Bush issued last month. Officials from the Office of Management and Budget said that the proposed cuts are “consistent with the evolving role of public broadcasting in a market that has benefited from tremendous growth and diversity of programming.” Granted, cable TV and satellite radio offer a wide variety of educational, cultural and other types of programming that previously were available only on public broadcasting channels. The advent of cable TV has helped to make the quality of programming much better than it used to be. Nevertheless, commercial TV is driven by advertising and ratings, and stations are beholden to shareholders and the bottom line. As a result, quality programming is not necessarily their top priority. As a publicly funded entity, public television has more freedom to focus on content and program quality. So public television and radio still offer programs not found anywhere else. Even if most Americans have access to cable television, many still do not. For them, public stations offer the only alternatives. But the larger issue, beyond viewing choice, is that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s airwaves are owned by the public. As such, they should be supported with public funding.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/mar/17/saving-public-airwaves/