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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Something happened this week that you probably didn’t notice.
It’s the first week that National Public Radio has operated without taxpayer dollars.
Even their listeners wouldn’t have noticed if NPR didn’t tell their audience on Monday morning. Their message, “we’re still here” and “we’re not easily silenced”.
I never expected for a moment that they’d be silenced. I don’t even mind NPR’s liberal stant. I care whether ot not my tax dollars are subsidizing it.
The initial premise behind public broadcasting no longer holds true. In the 1950s when most public stations came on-air, many cities had only three or four TV stations. There was no FM radio. No cable. No internet. Will there be a spot on the airwaves for Shakespeare, and classical music, and ballet? Now there are hundreds of channels, most of them for free. What opera? Just download it. Want liberal news? It’s on continuously from CNN, to MSNBC, to the BBC, to NPR.
And public broadcasters have other public gifts. Many operate out of studios, rent-free, on college campuses. Many of their transmitters and antennas are on public lands, like state parks or university campuses. Many of their managers are adjunct professors, paid with public dollars. Your for-profit commercial broadcaster pays rent or a mortgage on the land they own, and pays taxes.
There is no reason for one special group of broadcasters to have access to the public purse while others do not.
We were told that small, rural public stations would shut down. That hasn’t happened. We were told NPR as we knew it would cease to exist. It hasn’t. What has happened is that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has shut down; they existed only to distribute federal grants. And there is still something of value there, as a court fight is now underway over who will control their satellite distribution system.
You probably don’t listen to public radio. In Central Wisconsin, their listenership is less then half of this radio station’s audience. At least you’re no longer paying for it.
Chris Conley
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