Millions of American kids got a head start on kindergarten thanks to the happy, fun loving characters on Sesame Street.
But storm clouds are spreading over the neighborhood after the White House called on Congress to cut the cord that sends taxpayer funds to Public Broadcasting System (PBS) stations and the studios producing the programs that have entertained and taught generations of young Americans.
“We are under a severe threat to public funding of both radio and PBS. The recission would de-fund all public media in the US starting as early as July 1 of this year,” Avery Hutchins, president and CEO of WCTE-Upper Cumberland PBS, said Friday.
“Small stations like ours would not be able to survive a cut like this,” she warned, noting that 40% of WCTE’s annual expenses, including acquisition of programs like Sesame Street, have normally been covered by Congressional appropriations.
The Cookeville-based television outlet serves some 1.3 million viewer families in the 14-county Upper Cumberland region, whose southern anchor is Warren County.
WCTE is a non-profit organization chartered to bring PBS and locally originated programming to viewers free of charge. Scores of PBS stations and their counterparts in public radio receive donations from individuals and support from businesses and foundations in the form of content underwriting.
“We have great supporters” among the general public, Hutchins acknowledged, “but at the end of the day it’s not enough to make up for” the loss of federal funding threatened by the Trump White House and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
The House budget plan, now being considered by the Senate, would cancel government funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a non-government entity that distributes tax allocations to PBS stations and National Public Radio (NPR) network of local stations. Last year the total allocation for both TV and radio was some $590 million.
“It’s $1.60 per US citizen annually to have public media available to all people in all places,” Hutchins said in an INSIGHTS interview airing Wednesday (June 11) and Saturday at 9 a.m. both days on McMinnville Public Radio 91.3-WCPI. (A non-profit, community-based broadcaster, WCPI receives no funding from any government source.)
White House and Congressional opposition to CPB funding cites fiscal conservatism as a reason to halt taxpayer funding. But that argument is nothing more than a thin pretext, supporters counter, as taxpayer outlays for public media account for a vanishingly small fraction of one% of the federal budget.
“The loss will be much greater than” any savings, Hutchins insists in the WCPI interview. “If we go dark that will be the end.”
Supporters of public television and radio can take a stand by calling their Congressional representatives, the WCTE executive suggests.
Those contacts are: Congressman Scott DesJarlais, (202) 225-6831; Congressman John Rose, (931) 854-9430; Senator Marsha Blackburn, (202) 224-3344; Senator Bill Hagerty (202) 224-4944.
Public media fans are also urged to get more information at ProtectMyPublicMedia.org.
The mood in public broadcasting circles is grim, but a strong citizen response could save Sesame Street and dozens of other PBS programs for Americans from pre-schoolers to seniors, regardless of their location, economic status or political affinity.
“Millions of viewers will be heard,” Hutchins predicted hopefully.
