Text 13780, 103 rader
Skriven 2005-06-27 15:24:00 av Alan Hess
Ärende: don't fund PBS with taxes
=================================
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-op.pbs27jun27,1,150693.story?coll
=bal-pe-opinion
End taxpayer funding of public broadcasting


By David Boaz

June 27, 2005

WASHINGTON - Congressional Republicans cut funding for the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting, which funds public radio and television stations. After
having their fun, they then agreed to restore most of the money and dropped
their threat to eventually phase out all taxpayer funding. But they shouldn't
back down.

In fact, they should finish the job: End all taxpayer funding for government
broadcasting stations and let them compete in the marketplace like other
broadcasters.

In a 500-channel world, why do the taxpayers need to subsidize one more
channel? Defenders of National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System
tell us it's because we need "independent journalism." But can we really expect
to get truly independent journalism from a government-funded network?

It's time to establish the separation of news and state. Journalists should not
work for the government. Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize news and
public affairs programming.

Tax-funded broadcasters are up in arms over what they see as political
interference from the Bush administration. Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the
Bush-appointed chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has
proposed to make a Republican activist president and CEO of the CPB. Like many
Republicans, he has also complained about liberal bias at PBS and NPR.

Public opinion polls commissioned by PBS have found that most Americans don't
perceive tax-funded radio and television as politically biased. Of course, the
most effective bias is bias that the listener doesn't perceive. That can be the
subtle use of adjectives or frameworks.

For example, a report that "Congress has failed to pass a health care bill"
clearly leaves the impression that a health care bill is a good thing and that
Congress has "failed" a test. Compare that to language such as, "Congress
turned back a Republican effort to cut taxes for the wealthy." There, the
listener is clearly being told that something bad almost happened, but Congress
"turned back" the threat.

A careful listener to NPR would notice a preponderance of reports on racism,
sexism and environmental destruction.

David Fanning, executive producer of Frontline, PBS' documentary series,
responds to questions of bias by saying, "We ask hard questions to people in
power. That's anathema to some people in Washington these days."

But it seems safe to say that there never has been a Frontline documentary on
the burden of taxes or the number of people who have died because federal
regulations keep drugs off the market or the way that state governments have
abused the law in their pursuit of tobacco companies or the number of people
who use guns to prevent crime. Those "hard questions" just don't occur to
liberal journalists.

Anyone who got all his news from NPR would never know that Americans of all
races live longer, healthier and in more comfort than any people in history, or
that the environment has been getting steadily cleaner.

One dirty little secret that NPR and PBS don't like to acknowledge in public
debate is the wealth of their listeners and viewers. But they're happy to tell
advertisers - oops, I mean sponsors - about the affluent audience they're
reaching.

A few years ago, NPR enthusiastically told advertisers that its listeners are
66 percent wealthier than the average American, are three times as likely to be
college graduates and are 150 percent more likely to be professionals or
managers.

Tax-funded broadcasting, like tax-funded arts, is a giant income transfer
upward: The middle class is taxed to pay for news and entertainment for the
upper middle class. It's no accident that on NPR you hear ads for Remy Martin
and "private banking services," not for Budweiser and free checking accounts.

Under threat from the House Republicans, NPR and PBS are using their tax-funded
airwaves to reach their millions of affluent, influential fans. Local stations
are running 30-second ads over and over urging their listeners and viewers to
call members of Congress. Their Web sites offer instructions on how to "call,
fax or e-mail Congress." With about 800 radio and TV stations running these
ads, this is a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign.

It's simply wrong for tax-funded broadcasters to use our tax dollars to lobby
on behalf of getting more tax dollars. When government money is used to
influence the government, it's like putting a thumb on the scales of public
debate. Government itself is tipping the scales in one direction.

Tax-funded broadcasting has become a vast $2.5 billion enterprise, with more
than 350 television stations and 780 radio stations reaching every corner of
the country. It's time to cut this "infant industry" loose and let it make its
own way in the marketplace, without any more money from the taxpayers.

David Boaz is executive vice president of the Cato Institute and author of
Libertarianism: A Primer.

Copyright + 2005, The Baltimore Sun

--- Msged/2 6.0.1
 * Origin: tncbbs.no-ip.com - Try the CROSSFIRE echo - all welcome (1:261/1000)