From its founding until the early s, NPR was almost entirely dependent upon funding from the federal government through CPB. NPR steadily expanded its programming, staff, and size throughout the s and s, resulting in rising costs. By the early s, NPR was running an unsustainable budget deficit. In , the U. CPB imposed new bylaws onto NPR to allow the managing board to have more oversight over discretionary spending.
Rather than giving the bulk of its financing directly to NPR to be distributed to member stations, CPB began giving directly to member stations to purchase NPR content, a system that has continued to the present day. NPR paid off its debt in three years. The organization steadily raised its funding from contributions and commercial deals to close its deficit.
In , NPR became an early producer of podcasts, creating a lineup of programs. In , NPR again built up a sizeable budget deficit. Most of this federal funding comes from the CPB which indirectly finances NPR by providing grants to local radio stations which then license content from NPR for broadcasting.
Most of the federal, state, and local government funding reaches NPR through the same process. Critics accused NPR of demonstrating left-wing bias, despite claiming to be a broadcasting organization for public benefit.
Right-of-center figures have periodically called to eliminate government funding for NPR almost since its founding. Proponents of the cuts argue that the government should not be funding a media outlet and that NPR tends to have a political bias towards the left.
Only 4 percent of funding in fiscal year came from federal, state and local governments, according to NPR, and on average, less than 1 percent of its annual operating budget comes from federal agencies and departments or grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting CPB.
In court that's called Meanwhile, Twitter users have countered the calls to defund NPR with pushes for people to donate to the organization.
Maryland State Delegate Lesley Lopez posted on the social media website that she was donating, and former Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri encouraged people who "appreciate their fact-based reporting" to make an individual contribution. Newsweek reached out to NPR for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication. Rush Limbaugh is public broadcasting. The Act that Johnson signed into law on Nov. The Act begins,. Educational radio stations had been sprouting for decades, an outgrowth of this broader philanthropic trend to foster public education.
This announcement in the Harvard Crimson on Oct. This rigorous drive to self-improvement clearly transferred to the educational broadcasting stations. It seemed natural that broadcasting stations would find their homes in institutions created by another Yankee, the famed Vermont Senator Justin Morrill, who wanted to bring education to the middle class. In , it set aside channels for such purposes.
Soon afterward the Ford Foundation began to drift toward radical causes, which would have surprised Henry Ford, Sr. However, a turning point came in a speech by Leonard H. Marks explained to Johnson, who had been a teacher in rural Texas, how the new technology would allow one teacher to reach thousands.
Though the Act was a breakthrough in terms of getting lawmakers accustomed to the idea of using federal dollars to support educational television, it was too narrow to propel the Education Television project forward, since the money was aimed at creating facilities, not programming. At that time, yet another philanthropic organization, the Carnegie Corporation, entered the fray.
Eventually, the commission proposed by Lowell became the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television, and this entity recommended what became the Public Broadcasting Act and specifically called for the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
In a letter supporting the idea of a commission, President Johnson wrote:. From our beginning as a nation we have recognized that our security depends upon the enlightenment of our people; that our freedom depends on the communication of many ideas through many channels. I believe that educational television has an important future. Carnegie set the promotion of culture on a new pedestal. And not only imposed but paid for in major part by everyone.
White, the renowned New Yorker essayist who helped the commission with its work, captured the essence of the moment in a letter to the Commission, a passage of which read:. Non-commercial TV should address itself to the ideal of excellence, not the idea of acceptability — which is what keeps commercial TV from climbing the staircase.
I think TV should be providing the visual counterpart of the literary essay, should arouse our dreams, satisfy our hunger for beauty, take us on journeys, enable us to participate in events, present great drama and music, explore the sea and the sky and the woods and the hills. The spell was cast. Public affairs programming, educational programming and the culture of the s. A significant parallel development was taking place at the time. National Educational Television which the Ford Foundation had set up had begun to experiment with documentaries, panel discussions and other public affairs programs that it distributed to the stations.
At this point, ETRC was officially renamed NET, and we first see the full metamorphosis from educational television to something altogether different: news.
The reason for this change from educational programming to news was simple. Educational programming was not retaining viewers; in order to survive, changes would have to be made to appeal to a larger audience. Kennedy and later for Johnson, who by had become head of the Ford Foundation. It was the first time such a thing had been done, and it drew rave reviews from critics. The Associated Press reported it thus on Jan. Charles Ponce de Leon writes:.
More than any other television program at the time, PBL provided a platform for dissenting political views and controversial artistic projects … Not surprisingly, Westin and his fellow producers were assailed by conservatives. They were also condemned by many station managers, who were uncomfortable broadcasting a program so clearly informed by the political and cultural radicalism of the era; a number of stations, mostly in the South, refused to air several controversial episodes.
But Friendly stood behind Westin. The NET vision was in reality hostile to what Johnson had had in mind. Everything possible, however, was done in the debates, hearings and writing of the report to ensure that editorializing and opinion-making would not be part of the broadcasts.
Johnson and the congressmen who supported the bill wanted it funded from general tax revenue through appropriations, while Friendly fiercely opposed the idea of funding that had to be approved by the federal government.
He thought that requiring approval would be at odds with the public affairs programming that he insisted should be included. He told the Senate Subcommittee:. There will be — there should be — times when every man in politics — including you — will wish that it had never been created. But public television should not have to stand the test of political popularity at any point in time.
Its most precious right will be the right to rock the boat. The idea was rejected in by the Federal Communications Commission and Congress. After the bill was referred to the more conservative House on March 22, Representative Hastings Keith of Massachusetts raised concerns about the political dangers inherent in a government-supported broadcasting system.
In nine days of hearings by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, concerns about possible political interference were allayed by the introduction of an amendment that determined no more than eight of the 15 board members could come from the same political party. Dean Coston, Deputy Under Secretary at the then-Department of Health, Education and Welfare, who was among the opponents of excluding editorializing, worked closely with Johnson during the original drafting of the bill and fought hard to get public radio included.
He did not mind banning the endorsement of candidates and requiring balance, but he insisted that editorializing by radio and TV presenters be permitted. Springer, however, held his ground. It thus made it to the final bill signed into law. Critics who held that Section violated the First Amendment kept fighting it and eventually won in court.
In , in Federal Communications Commission v. The House passed the bill on Sept. Some flexibility was allowed: Each program in a series would not have to meet this standard, but a series of programs as a whole would. The House approved the conference report on Oct. Of the three, the Ford Foundation was to have the decisive impact. If public television is to fulfill our hopes, then the Corporation must be representative, it must be responsible, and it must be long on enlightened leadership.
Richard Milhous Nixon was elected president a year later and entered the White House with a team full of hope. That optimism extended to public broadcasting.
By law, 95 percent of the federal appropriation CPB receives is provided as grants to local television and radio stations, programming, and improvements to the public broadcasting system. CPB appreciates your interest in learning how to support public media and encourages you to consider contributing to your local public television and radio stations. You can find your local station information here. CPB invests limited funds in the production of innovative, diverse content that aligns with public media's mission—to provide universal access to high-quality educational programming in the United States, especially to underserved audiences.
CPB-supported content must be distributed through public media outlets, and with that in mind, collaborative ventures between independent producers and public media stations are highly encouraged.
Under a framework referred to as the "three Ds" — Digital, Diversity, and Dialogue — CPB's grants support innovation on digital platforms; content that is for, by and about the diverse communities we seek to serve; and content and services that foster dialogue and engagement among members of the audience and the broader community. CPB's strategic priorities call for programming that focuses on advancing journalism, education, innovation, diversity and content for unserved and underserved communities.
CPB considers projects from producers with experience creating nationally recognized work. Productions or collaborative ventures between independent producers and public media stations are encouraged. CPB-supported content must be distributed through U. Funding is subject to the availability of funds and system content needs. Check our list of other potential funding sources for more. If you are a producer looking to secure CPB funding for a project, read about our Content and Production Grants and email grants cpb.
For updates on grants, follow CPBmedia on Twitter or sign up for email updates. Public media's mission is to provide universal access to high-quality educational programming in the U. Generally, CPB does not fund non-U. The Radio Community Service Grant CSG program may accept a limited number of new radio stations each year during a defined application period.
To qualify for a grant from CPB, a radio station must meet a set of eligibility criteria in addition to operating under a noncommercial educational license granted by the U. CPB provides annual funding to public television stations through the Community Service Grant program, but is not accepting applications for new stations at this time, except by waiver.
Skip to main content. Question or comment about the scheduling of a program?
0コメント