Romney Confirms Plans to Yank PBS Subsidy, Puts Public Broadcasters Further On Guard

"I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS,” Romney told Lehrer. “I'm gonna stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird, I actually like you, too. But I'm not gonna keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for."

PBS CEO Paula Kerger said Romney doesn’t understand the value Americans place on public broadcasting “and the outstanding return on investment the system delivers to our nation.” As a stated supporter of education, Romney should be a champion of public broadcasting, she said in a statement, but “he is willing to wipe out services that reach the vast majority of Americans,” including children who can’t attend pre-school, citizens in rural areas and other underserved audiences.

Forcing Sesame Street to engage in commercial advertising “betrays an appalling lack of appreciation and understanding of what public broadcasting is and represents,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore. A report issued to Congress in June “reveals that there is no alternative to public funding and that advertising on Sesame Street would actually result in less money for public broadcasting because people would refuse to voluntarily contribute to watch commercial advertising,” he said. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass, also a champion of the public broadcasting appropriation, criticized what he claims is Romney’s support for oil companies: Romney’s budgetary priority “is to protect $40 billion in subsidies for the most profitable oil companies on the planet but put an end to Elmo’s World."

The Association of Public TV Stations hopes Romney will reconsider his opposition to federal funding, said APTS President Patrick Butler. Terminating this investment “would have no effect on the federal budget deficit,” he said. But it would be devastating for essential services in education, engaged citizenship, public safety and other areas “that public media provide to 170 million viewers, listeners and learners, including children in low-income families for whom Big Bird and Company have been the lifeline to educational success for 40 years,” he said.

Although the government allocation makes up a small portion of the budget for some stations, the loss of those funds will have a negative effect on the stations and their supporters, some public TV station executives said. The budget impact of a cut in the appropriation would be minuscule “while the loss to our nation would be significant,” said Larry Unger, CEO of Maryland Public Television. MPT intends to continue “making the case for public TV in our community and among those who make laws in Washington, D.C.,” he said. With an allocation of $3.5 million, federal funding makes up 13 percent of the budget for UNC-TV, Chapel Hill, N.C., said a UNC-TV spokesman. The network’s ability “to produce locally originated programming and our ability to maintain a statewide infrastructure would be seriously jeopardized” without the subsidy, he said. UNC-TV has lost more than $5 million in state funding since 2008, he added.

Romney’s comment followed approval in a House Appropriations subcommittee to zero out funding for NPR and CPB (CD Aug 27 p5). A full committee markup has not been scheduled, a committee spokeswoman said. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., circulated a letter to members of the committee urging an end to the appropriation (CD May 11 p13). Americans for Limited Government also supports defunding CPB, it said: “The era of three television station markets that was used by some to justify the diversity provided by PBS is gone forever, and … federal taxpayer funding for PBS should follow suit.”