Public Broadcasting Mobilizes Against Romney

As Mitt Romney says, it doesn’t make sense to borrow money from China to pay for public TV or radio. But terminating the funding is easier said than done. The reason: there are more than 900 local public radio stations and more than 350 local public television stations which receive support from the taxpayer-financed Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and lobby for the money. These entities put enormous pressure on Congress.

The CPB, which supports the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), receives approximately $450 million annually from federal taxpayers.

“I’m gonna stop the subsidy to PBS, and I like PBS,” Romney said in the debate. “I love Big Bird. I, actually, like you too,” referring to PBS moderator Jim Lehrer.

“I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS” is a strong statement. How will he do it? And what will the campaign do now that the public broadcasting entities are waging a political lobbying campaign against Romney’s proposed cuts?

We at AIM ran up against this lobbying power in 2005 when we commenced an effort to educate members of Congress on the need to eliminate the subsidies. “AIM urges George Soros, Ted Turner and other liberal elites to step forward and take American taxpayers off the hook for the $400 million being spent annually on public broadcasting,” we said at the time.

In fact, Soros did contribute $1.8 million to National Public Radio in 2010 but the federal funding has also continued.

[link to www.trevorloudon.com]