First a little background.
Since 1967, the U.S. government has recognized a need and a place for publicly funded broadcasting. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created that year to serve as a firewall between Congress and the White House and public journalism - providing funding for programming on those stations, and preventing the system from becoming politicized.
But now there are politicians who are trying to endanger its survival. A House committee recently voted to slash $100 million from next year's budget to the CPB and also eliminated subsidies for educational programs and technological upgrades. Fortunately, the full House voted 284-140 Thursday to restore the proposed cut.
However, PBS still might end up with less money than it has in its current budget. The spending bill for health, education and labor programs would eliminate $23 million for the Ready to Learn program, which subsidizes children's educational programming and distributes learning materials.
We hope that vote will discourage others from further attacks on public broadcasting, because it is a vital source of information that is unique in American life.
Public broadcasting is more than "Sesame Street." Public broadcasting - specifically radio - provides some of the best news and information programs available anywhere. "Morning Edition," a Peabody Award-winning news program, has more listeners every week than Rush Limbaugh.
Some critics of public broadcasting are quick to scream "liberal bias." That's an easy label that gets thrown around far too often. Unfortunately for those critics, most Americans don't agree with that assessment.
Two polls in 2002 and 2003, commissioned by the CPB, show an overwhelming number of Americans trust NPR and PBS more than any other news organizations. It is interesting to note that a 1997 Pew Research Center poll showed that 77 percent of Republicans feel all media is slanted, while 58 percent of Democrats feel that way.
The attempt to kill public broadcasting is not new. Richard Nixon tried to cut funding to the system in the 1970s, and Newt Gingrich tried it again in 1994. What's different this time around was the system itself was being undermined by the chairman of the CPB, Kenneth Tomlinson. Tomlinson, a Republican appointee, said he wants to bring "balance" to the reporting on public television and radio.
I believe that now, more than ever, the type of programming provided by NPR stations is crucial to our democracy. In this day when opinion is confused with factual reporting, and most media outlets get distracted from stories that matter by tales of runaway brides and celebrity weddings, real reporting is drowned out. It's deeply troubling to me that a recent survey shows that 40 percent of Americans believe that Bill O'Reilly is a journalist, while only 30 percent say Bob Woodward is one.
KCPW is more sensitive to the current fray over the CPB than many other stations because of our fairly unusual position in the public radio universe. Most public radio stations are licensed to a university or educational entity, which means they get state tax dollars, in addition to CPB money.
CPB money makes up about 13 percent of KCPW's annual budget. The rest comes from corporate underwriters and listener donations. Other public stations in Utah are subsidized by state tax dollars, some up to $400,000 a year. We don't rely heavily on that money and we scrutinize where every single dollar is spent. One example: We debated long and hard whether we could afford to spend about $100 to pay for a staff member to join a professional trade organization.
If this funding were to dry up, it would severely hamper our mission to provide in-depth local news. We're lucky that we only get 13 percent from the CPB; at some stations it accounts for 50 percent of the budget. Those stations could not survive if government cuts were left to stand. The CPB gave $85 million to radio stations from Alaska to Puerto Rico last year, including KCPW.
The current attempt to cut funding from public broadcasting would have hurt local stations more than the national network. The funding from Congress helps local stations improve their equipment and infrastructure, and pay for programming from the network.
I've worked in both commercial and public broadcasting during my career. Both have merit and both are valuable to our society. But I love being a part of public broadcasting because I feel like we're doing something that matters at the end of the day, something with soul.
Commercial news organizations are accountable to one thing - the bottom line. News organizations are in the business of news - making a profit. With public funding comes a greater responsibility - accountability to the American people. Accountability to our listeners.
I owe my whole career to a lesson I learned from public broadcasting. It was Big Bird who taught me that asking questions is a good way to find things out.
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Bryan Schott has been a broadcast journalist for more than 20 years. He is currently news director for KCPW radio, which is heard at 88.3 FM in Salt Lake City.
