American Public Media Calls on Congress to Keep Public Media Strong
Contact: Christina Schmitt
(651) 290-1449
cschmitt@mpr.org
www.americanpublicmedia.org
American Public Media Calls on Congress to Keep Public Media Strong
St. Paul, Minn. (February 16, 201l)--American Public Media (APM) is calling on Congress to reject a House Appropriations Committee proposal to eliminate all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The proposed elimination is part of $100 billion in cuts to the current federal budget.
"Pubic media has an enormous positive impact on the lives of 170 million Americans each week," says Bill Kling, President of APM. "There's no doubt that the current federal balance sheet needs to be revamped. But the complete elimination of CPB, rather than a budget reduction on par with the rest of the federal budget, would unravel a system created by local communities around the country via individual contributions over the last forty years."
Federal funding is a modest, yet critical, part of the public-private partnership that is public media, amounting to $1.35 annually for each American. In turn, every dollar of the federal share is leveraged into six additional dollars at the local station level from other sources. "Public broadcasting is one of the most successful public-private partnerships in the United States today," says Kling.
As a co-manager of the 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting campaign, American Public Media is actively working to help public media supporters stay up to date on this issue and let their voices be heard by those making the decisions in Washington.
More information is available online at 170MillionAmericans.org.