Double your public broadcasting donation

I’m an NPR enthusiast. Less so PBS, which I find stodgy. But both beat the competition, broadcast and even print. Give me either one on a desert island rather than the New York Times or the Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal (news pages, not the editorials or opinions) is more competitive, both in breadth and depth.

So you’ll assume I’m upset about the Republican Congress nixing funding for public broadcasting. I’m not.

Why I’m not upset

That’s not just because the percentage of their direct funding from the Federal government is relatively small. It’s just 1% for NPR and 15% for PBS. They also get some Federal money from the local stations, which pay NPR and PBS for content.

Whatever the total, it would be far worse to continue getting these subsidies during the Trump Administration.

The MAGAtes would insist their voices increase in volume. Already I am hearing more of their nonsense, especially on NPR, than in the past. Three more years of Trump pressure would make NPR and PBS virtual mouthpieces of liars and charlatans. If I want truly independent media in today’s America, the government should not be funding them.

What to do

Both NPR and PBS have given up the “non-commercial” label and now have lots of relatively low-key ads. I suppose they can increase corporate funding if they allow higher profile corporate sponsorship.

I’d prefer to see more citizen support. I’ve already doubled what I regard as my considerable contribution. That won’t help much, but if others join the “double the money” effort it really would make a big difference.

So too would greater foundation contributions. Pressure on foundations from the many civil society organizations losing government money will be enormous for the next few years. But maintaining space for in-depth, honest journalism has to be a priority.

Join the movement

Even if 20% of those giving to public broadcasting double their money, a good bit of the shortfall would disappear. That will be difficult in a year in which many listeners and viewers are losing their jobs with the government. So the rest of us will need to step up.

It’s by now obvious that our democracy is at risk. Keeping a space free of lies is going to be vital to preserving it.