Trump’s Budget Again Proposes Elimination of Public TV, Arts Funding

[FreddyE1977]

I I doubt Trump will get his way on the elimination of the NEA and NEH solely on the strength of his personal distaste for culture.

What makes you think he was motivated by a "personal distaste for culture"? You can Google photos of him attending the Met, Broadway, and other New York cultural events, going back decades.

It's a basic tenet of Conservatism that such things should be paid for by the private sector. Or at the very least they should be a very low priority for a government that is already $21 trillion in debt. (and yes, some of us are motivated by the fact that we feel PBS/NPR give short-shrift to our points of view, while still taking our money).

Not that I am going to defend him here, as the way he has handled this made clear that he was not motivated by any principles that involve fiscal responsibility.

[TheBigA]

It's a basic tenet of Conservatism that such things should be paid for by the private sector.

Not really. The original Public Broadcasting Act had wide support from conservatives, but then it was at a different time. As I've said, it mainly benefits red states, which is why Congressmen from those states continue to support it. If you look at the Senators who voted against this latest funding bill, you'll see the names of the most liberal Senators, including Bernie Sanders and Diane Feinstein.

[FreddyE1977]

The original Public Broadcasting Act had wide support from conservatives, but then it was at a different time.

They may have been Republicans. I would not call them Conservatives.

I don't know if there are any Conservatives left anymore since this Drunken Sailor spending bill got so many votes.

[dave73]

It's been a while since I last posted to this messageboard. After reading through all these messages, here's a big problem for PBS stations if they lose their federal funding. The majority of PBS stations operate on Non-Commercial licenses. If the federal government wants PBS stations to find their own funding, then they need to make to convert all the Non-Commercial licenses to commercial, if any of these PBS stations are to survive. Keeping the licenses as Non-Commercial will make it difficult for many PBS stations to find alternate funding to stay on the air. Instead, you'll see for licenses that get turned in, if the FCC doesn't delete the licenses, then you're going to see religious organizations like Daystar buying up these licenses (Daystar prefers non-commercial licenses).

[TheBigA]

It's been a while since I last posted to this messageboard. After reading through all these messages, here's a big problem for PBS stations if they lose their federal funding.

What's missing from this thread is the news that Congress approved funding for CPB through 2020:

https://www.cpb.org/pressroom/cpb-st...tions-act-2018