Free programming which provided academic learning and exposure to global cultures has been lost with the federal government’s defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
The CPB, established by the U.S. Congress in 1967, lost $1.1 billion in funding thanks to congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump, who issued an executive order on his first day in office for his second term to no longer provide funding for the CPB.
But, without National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), both of which were operated by the CPB, how will an entire generation of American children be impacted by not having “Sesame Street” and other educational programs?
The CPB offered free television and radio programs, especially in rural areas of America.
“I know the impact that public media has had on me [and others],” said Professor Tamara Zellars Buck, a media law and ethics expert, who teaches journalism at Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO).
Buck, who holds a bachelor’s and a master’s from SEMO, serves on national boards in the field of journalism and holds a law degree from the University of Memphis. She understands how government works and the importance of journalism. She earned her master’s in public education.
She was working as a local journalist covering education in 2001 when she was offered an opportunity to teach journalism. She is now chair of the department. Until recently, she also served as student media advisor.
“So I still get close enough to it,” Buck said of journalism.
The defunding of the CPB hits near and dear to her. She went from donating annually to donating every month to her local NPR station. Growing up in urban Missouri as a member of Generation X, Buck watched Masterpiece Theater and heard opera because of NPR and PBS.
“We were the ones who were raised on PBS,” Buck said of “the latchkey” generation.
Now, her two granddaughters, ages 2 and 4, watch.
“There was that educational component that came from public access,” she said.
And public access meant free programming, regardless of economic status, educational background or whether you lived in a city or a rural area of the country.
She said that after Trump’s executive order she hoped Congress would not allow defunding of the CPB.
“Surely, this won’t happen. Surely, not. Surely we won’t let this happen,” she said she thought at first.
Public media is still necessary for children like when Buck was a child. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a factory worker. She otherwise would not have had exposure to so much culture.
According to Buck, public broadcasting should not be politicized for any reason, because it has economic impact and provides exposure to culture in arts and media.
“That’s going to be something that’s taken away and that saddens me,” she said.
She said that individuals and groups who attack public media are thinking too narrowly and when Americans and politicians realize what we have lost with the defunding of the CPB, “it’s going to be too late.”
And the damage will go further. Public media has been localized thanks to the CPB. Without the CPB, some TV and radio stations may be saved and continue to offer localized content. Other stations, however, will be in danger of being bought by corporations, lose their independence and no longer offer localized content.
A similar journey has been seen with American newspapers since the Great Recession: many have either disappeared, been absorbed into other newspapers or no longer offer local content. Buck said she expects that public media will follow the same “fate” as newspapers.
The reality, she said, is that when educational institutions and hospitals downsize, they do so first by reducing staff, then they must cut back on services.
“And that’s what’s wrong with our hospitals,” she said, especially of hospitals in rural areas.
Some Americans will support the public media stations with money, but some will not be able to support financially.
Whether Trump’s order to defund public broadcasting in America is part of a larger plan or just politics, Buck said that the excuse of politics makes it easier for broad decisions that impact many who will now be misinformed or uninformed for lack of access to public media.
For at least the next more than three years, children and adults will no longer have public access, including an entire generation of children who will grow up without the educational programming of NPR and PBS.
“All of us, actually, we’re losing these cultural aspects,” Buck said.
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Rebecca Barnabi
