Bead 13: NPR vs. DJT

I have sort of a chip on my shoulder about my local public radio station.  First of all, it's not really local.  Valley Public Radio, as its name implies, is in the Valley.  I mean the Central Valley, that flat, hot place about the size of Tennessee where all our food comes from, and where I try to never go.  I live in the mountains, just 30 miles from the crest of the Sierra Nevada as the Clark's nutcracker flies.  

Then there is the station's format.  It's classical music, which is not my favorite.  Sure, there is a six-hour helping of Morning Edition if I want to get up at 3:00 a.m., but I don't.  For me, it's more like two potential hours of Morning Edition, of which I actually catch only 20 minutes while driving to work.  There's a break from classical at lunchtime, and another break for All Things Considered and other evening programs.  Then it's Classics All Night until the clock turns around.

Finally, there is the matter of the pledge drive.  It's always the pledge drive.  The on-air volunteers like to say the drives only happen quarterly, for a total of four weeks per year, but I know they're wrong.  Chances are, if I'm on 89.3, someone is suggesting I might be a freeloader if I haven't made a sustaining donation this year.

Be that as it may, I kind of also love Valley Public Radio.  It's National Public Radio, after all, and what's not to love there?  My adoration sometimes waxes more nostalgic than literal, as when I am extra-pissed at America and find NPR too middle-of-the-road for my tastes.  But nostalgia is a big deal.  The Morning Edition theme song sounds like a rich mug of coffee; the All Things Considered song puts me in mind of Dave Brubeck's Take Five because of the one time they merged the two riffs into a medley.  I love Ira Glass.  I love the parts of Prairie Home Companion that aren't too cheesy.  I remember when Bob Edwards got fired.  NPR marked my passage into adulthood; I remember when it dawned on me that the boring news station of my youth had become my FM go-to.

On May 24, Trump unveiled his first full budget plan.  It has a name that sounds like a parody of itself: A New Foundation for American Greatness.  It's too silly to be true--and yet there it is, a big ream of paper marred with the official seal of the Executive Office of the President of the United States of America. [1]

The budget, like the name, is a caricature.  It's everything you might expect from the guy:  big cuts for health, science, education, diplomacy, humanitarian aid, environmental protection, veterans, refugees, poor people, and the elderly.  On the other side of the seesaw are the things we are told need additional support:  the military, federal law enforcement, and infrastructure development. [2]  Stack that side a little higher with the massive tax cuts for the wealthy proposed by Trump just a few weeks ago, and then sprinkle the whole ensemble with absurd assumptions, like annual 3 percent economic growth.  The result?  A balanced budget by 2027!

By now you know where this is going.  Integral to A New Foundation for American Greatness is the dissolution of any federal partnerships with arts and media organizations.  This includes the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  The former two are actually federal agencies housed in the Executive Branch.  The latter is a private nonprofit that manages federal dollars earmarked for public broadcasting; it uses most of its appropriations to fund PBS and NPR.  Next year, if Trump has his way, each of these groups will be shutting down.  The NEA and NEH don't have a say in the matter, as they answer directly to the President.  The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as a private entity, can technically choose whether to close, but with an operating budget of zero, it would be difficult to make do.

The thing is, federal funding of the arts and media is a drop in the bucket, when the bucket in question is our government's annual budget of almost $4 trillion.  The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's 2014 federal appropriation was $445 million. [3]  By comparison, the Secret Service's budget for protective operations is more than $750 million, the bulk of which goes to securing the White House, Trump, the estranged First Lady, and Trump's globe-trotting adult children.  If that weren't enough, the recently-passed 2017 spending bill shells out another $120 million for Trump family security. [4]

You have to really value something to want to keep it alive to the tune of half a billion dollars.  With a price tag like that, American taxpayers should get to weigh in.

Er--I mean, we should have a say on whether public broadcasting lives.  Not the First Family.  Mostly.

On the subject of public opinion, a bipartisan polling team found in January 2017 that 73 percent of voters oppose eliminating federal funding for public television.  And it turns out PBS isn't just for highfalutin liberals.  In the same January poll, 66 percent of Trump voters favored either increasing federal funds for public television, or maintaining current levels of funding. [5]

People care about PBS and NPR because they are educational, non-commercial, and generally enriching.  The consensus seems to be that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a good place to put our tax dollars.  And when you divvy up the cost of funding CPB for one year, it comes out to the bargain rate of $1.35 per American:  another drop in the bucket. [6]

For me, it's NPR all the way.  I have my car radio presets tuned not just to Valley Public Radio, but Capital Public Radio (Sacramento and Stockton/Modesto) and KQED Public Radio (San Francisco) for road trips.  When all my presets are out of range, I just plod through the lower frequencies until I get what I'm looking for:  that rich cup of coffee, or that Dave Brubeck riff, and maybe a little news.

It was pledge drive time for Valley Public Radio again this week.  Every morning on the way to town, met with the too-chipper voices of volunteers instead of those of Rachel Martin and David Greene, I was disgruntled anew.  "Grrrr, the pledge drive," I would complain to my son.  "This has been going on forever."  For days I was convinced I wasn't the listener they sought.  I donated last year.  Or maybe it was the year before.  I couldn't be expected to pony up again so soon. 

Finally, on Wednesday evening, I had a moment of clarity.  The volunteer was saying something about it being the last couple hours of the drive, and it clicked for me.  NPR is in trouble.  PBS is in trouble.  Publicly-supported arts and media are in trouble.  I care about that.  I should do something.  I picked up the phone and, debit card in hand, I spoke out. 

References

[1]  Trump's budget plan:  A New Foundation for American Greatness

[2]  Summary of Trump's proposed funding cuts and increases:  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/23/us/politics/trump-budget-details.html?_r=0 

[3]  Corporation for Public Broadcasting's operating budget for 2012, 2013, and 2014:  http://www.cpb.org/aboutcpb/financials/budget

[4]  Additional $120 million provided for security for the Trump family:  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/us/politics/secret-service-trump-protection.html?_r=0

[5]  National voter survey on federal funding for public television:  http://www.pbs.org/about/blogs/news/survey-shows-voters-oppose-eliminating-federal-funding/

[6]  Corporation for Public Broadcasting overview:  http://www.cpb.org/aboutcpb