I could possibly have some respect for differing views if they were, at the very least, consistent. “Conservative” as I understand it, supposedly means minimal government involvement. Yet the current “conservative” regime has gotten government more involved in just about everything than any group to come before. Federal spending is at an all-time high. Clinton managed a balanced budget, and what did W do with it? “Conservative” now seems to be synonymous with state-supported religion, governmental restriction of women’s rights, and federal restriction of gays’ rights. Not to mention a tax policy intended to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Doesn’t sound like keeping the government out of people’s lives to me.<\/p>\n
Conservatives are against public broadcasting, primarily NPR, ostensibly because it’s “federally funded” and “liberally biased.” I’m not going to address the liberal bias claim, because it’s silly. Most NPR listeners complain that it’s too right-leaning. I’m not sure how it’s federally funded<\/a>, since NPR gets 1-2% of their funding from competitive grants from CPB, NEA, and the NSF. Member stations (which is the primary support for NPR) get a whopping 13% of their budget from the CPB. So, say, at MOST, the government contributes 15% of NPR and its member stations funding. Woot. Pennies.<\/p>\n The total allocation for CPB is currently $390 million. Most of that goes to television and PBS programming. A whopping $30 million goes to radio. Congress recently decided to cut CPB’s funding to about $300 million. The cuts are presumably necessary because we have to protect ourselves from Iraq. Included in the cuts were ~$40 million slated to go toward upgrading to digital television, since the FCC is going to stop allowing analog TV transmission in 2009. <\/p>\n So, keep in mind, this $390 million that conservatives think is just bad, though a whopping $30 million goes to evil, liberal NPR.<\/p>\n