LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

One of the dearly held goals of the religious right has been the silencing of public radio and television as part of their theocratic march into power. Along the demonization of women and gays, and the forcing of their beliefs into schools under the guise of 'Intelligent Design', the silencing of any non-partisan "immoral" (see the new FCC crackdowns that have become law) or educational broadcasting is one of the ways they can bring this country to heel.

The battle has begun in earnest with the House targeting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and sharply reducing their funding. They've already added 'ombudsmen' to monitor the content of public radio and television, and this is the next step towards the goal of 'zero funding' they covet.

A House subcommittee voted yesterday to sharply reduce the federal government's financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children's educational programs as "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," "Arthur" and "Postcards From Buster."

In addition, the subcommittee acted to eliminate within two years all federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- which passes federal funds to public broadcasters -- starting with a 25 percent reduction in CPB's budget for next year, from $400 million to $300 million.

In all, the cuts would represent the most drastic cutback of public broadcasting since Congress created the nonprofit CPB in 1967. The CPB funds are particularly important for small TV and radio stations and account for about 15 percent of the public broadcasting industry's total revenue.

Expressing alarm, public broadcasters and their supporters in Congress interpreted the move as an escalation of a Republican-led campaign against a perceived liberal bias in their programming. That effort was initiated by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's own chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson.

"Americans overwhelmingly see public broadcasting as an unbiased information source," Rep. David Obey (Wis.), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said in a statement. "Perhaps that's what the GOP finds so offensive about it. Republican leaders are trying to bring every facet of the federal government under their control. . . . Now they are trying to put their ideological stamp on public broadcasting."

We all know what their 'ideological stamp' is.

Yes, I am an NPR listener, and a contributer. But this weakening of their funding will make it even more imperative for people like us to keep them on the air. Even if you are not, this overt attempt to silence the one remaining source of full reporting of things the rest of the media misses is something that should chill you and make you think about the direction this country is headed.