Opinion : Wait, wait..Don't tell me...

It's another week and another cut in funding for, something that should be self reliant. The Corporation of Public Broadcasting announced that it would be shutting down after their allowance got cut off.

$1.1 billion was cut from their budget and I'm thinking, "HOLY COW! They got a BILLION dollars a year? That's insane!" My question is this. If they are a broadccasting network, why haven't they been working on selling advertising? 

For more than 50 years, we've been paying for the "free" service.  For media that I never use, I guess I won't be missing it. Occassionally, I might run across something they have on. Maybe once every five years or so. In the day and age of the internet, I think like newspapers, traditional radio and television are all on their way out. It's so last century. (Thanks Al Gore for creating the internet.)

Now maybe they really do good work, but again, why haven't they taken the opportunity - in more than 50 years to become self-suffocient? Why haven't they hired a sales rep? Why are traditional media sources expected to make it on their own but this special segment of "news" gets to take it easy on supporting themselves?

Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, said in a statement Friday, “public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country.”

Okay, now seriously, have you ever gone to public radio for an emergency alert? I don't think so. Can we talk trust, since they claim to be one of the "most trusted"? I trust them like I do ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN and Fox. Not so much. I just ran across a documentary they did the other night. (I usually have YouTube running in the background as my “tv”) Since I was wrapping up for the day, I listened to it. It had the usual left-leaning logic, and was, at least to me a ho-hum show. Hey, I tried to be impressed.

CPB said that the majority of the staff positions “will conclude with the close of the fiscal year on September 30, 2025,” with a small transition team to stay through January 2026.

Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee panel said, “It is a shameful reality and now communities across the country will suffer the consequences as over 1,500 stations lose critical funding,” Murray said. 

I might be one of the odd ducks, but I continue to look at the debt of the United States. We simply can't afford to keep funding things that aren't absolutely necessary. Food, water, defense, and infrastructure are needed. After that, the rest is just the frills. 

After 50 years of public funding, it might be time to "ask not what your country can do for you, but why can't you do this for yourselves?" In other words, it's another unfortunate cut, but necessary if we are ever going to act like we care about our debt. 

Every year we hear about the debt "ceiling" crisis, without paying any attention to the word "crisis." We continue to spend, print money and spend like we're Daddy Warbucks. Both parties, Republicans and Democrats, are equally guilty for this debacle. When we spend like a drunken sailor, something has to be done to right the ship. 

And no, President Trump, that does not include rebate checks.