By: Scott Larson
slarson@kcautv.com
Big Bird has never been so hot. "Saturday Night Live," "The Today Show," and "Good Morning America" among others have all asked for appearances from the giant yellow Muppet. This comes after he was unexpectedly thrust into the presidential campaign by Mitt Romney last night. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney called for cuts to federal funding for public broadcasting. In response, PBS Chief Paula Kerger says she "Just about fell off the sofa'' when the issue suddenly came up. Federal funding is critical for public broadcasting and local stations say they're afraid of what would happen if they lost that money.
On the national stage, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama traded jabs over the economy, health care, and the role of government. One thing that resonated among viewers the most was Romney's proposal to strip funding from PBS. "I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you too. But I am not going to keep spending money on things we have to borrow money from China to pay for."
That started a torrent of tweets – as many as seventeen thousand per minute! So how much is public TV costing Americans? Molly Phillips, Director of Communications for IPTV, says, "The federal money that goes to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is 0.01%. So one hundredth of one percent of the overall budget. The Federal Budget."
That may not sound like much, but it's enough to help the hundreds of PBS stations across the US keep running. That includes radio stations like KWIT on the campus of Western Iowa Tech. They receive about 1/3 of their money to operate from the federal government and without it, they'd need to make drastic changes. Gretchen Gondek, the KWIT General Manager, says, "We do everything we can to raise funds. We have fund drives. We raise about $120,000, which is very good, but that's not enough for us to cover the cost of programming."
As for those who take advantage of what public TV and radio has to offer, there are mixed reviews on which direction to take. Barbara Rosemeyer of Sioux City appreciates the educational content and says, "We need the free stations. And if we have to support some of them, then yeah...I think we need to do it." David Hout, a student at Briar Cliff, believes that cuts to PBS can be made as long as the money is allocated correctly. "I think if we appropriate some of the cuts from PBS maybe into the public school system. Then I think it would be a good idea."
Gretchen says that if federal funding were taken away, public stations like KWIT would push for a change in the FCC law to allow them to run commercials.
