Washington – Big Bird and National Public Radio won a reprieve Thursday as the House restored $100 million that had been proposed as a budget cut for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The 284-140 vote demonstrated the enduring political strength of public broadcasting, whose supporters rallied behind popular programs such as “Sesame Street,” “Postcards From Buster” and “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.”
The Public Broadcasting Service undertook a campaign to rescind the proposed cut. Lawmakers were flooded with letters and phone calls.
The corporation was set up by Congress in 1967 to shield public broadcasting from political influence. It distributes federal subsidies to PBS, National Public Radio, and hundreds of public radio and television stations.
The corporation’s chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, a GOP appointee, has made news recently with his contention that public broadcasting is too liberal.
Republicans who favored the cuts said federal subsidies provide only about 15 percent of the public broadcasting budget. The rest, they said, comes from private and corporate donors, as well as licensing and royalties from programming.
They said the $100 million cut would amount to only about 4 percent of all spending on public broadcasting.
“Big Bird and his friends can fly on their own,” said Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla.
PBS still might end up with less money than in its current budget. The legislation would eliminate $23 million for the Ready to Learn program, which subsidizes children’s educational programming and distributes learning materials.
Earlier Thursday, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting chose a former Republican Party co-chairman Thursday as its president and chief executive.
Patricia S. Harrison, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, was selected after three days of closed meetings by the corporation’s board of directors.
She was co-chair of the Republican National Committee from 1997 to 2001.
In tapping Harrison, the CPB board said she was devoted to public broadcasting and its mission. Liberal public interest groups criticized the decision, saying Harrison has no ex perience in public broadcasting.
Conservatives countered that partisans have held leadership positions in public broadcasting before. Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the Media Research Center, pointed to Frank Mankiewicz, former president of National Public Radio – who also served as press secretary to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and as presidential campaign director for Sen. George McGovern.
“The problem we have here is that when Democrats work in public broadcasting, nobody seems to notice,” Graham said.
