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NPR Cries Foul Over Loss of Free Money
February 14, 2011
NPR’s CEO and President Vivian Schiller spoke out about the House Appropriations Committee’s formal proposal to zero out federal funding for public broadcasting. “The elimination of federal funding would be a significant blow to nearly 900 public radio stations that serve the needs of more than 38 million Americans with free over-the-air programming they can’t find anywhere else,” Ms. Schiller said. “It would diminish stations’ ability to bring high-quality local, national and international news to their communities, as well as local arts, music and cultural programming that other media don’t present. Rural and economically distressed communities could lose access to this programming altogether if their stations go dark.”
Schiller added, “The public values and increasingly relies on the trustworthy news and information that public radio provides. The growing number of public radio listeners speaks to the hunger for independent local media sources that help make sense of what’s going on in their own community and around the world.”