President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Patricia Harrison said Monday that the cuts to PBS in the White House’s budget proposal could cause people to lose their lives.
“Americans place great value on having universal access to public media’s educational and informational programming and services, provided commercial free and free of charge,” Harrison wrote in a statement Monday. “Since there is no viable substitute for federal funding that would ensure this valued service continues, the elimination of federal funding to CPB would at first devastate, and then ultimately destroy public media’s ability to provide early childhood content, life-saving emergency alerts, and public affairs programs.”
The White House released its Fiscal Year 2019 budget Monday, which rescinds a large portion of funding for public media. The budget leaves $15 million for public media for FYs 2019 and 2020.
“Public media benefits all Americans — whether they live in small towns, rural communities, or large urban areas. Americans rely on public media for high-quality educational and informational programs that are proven to get their children ready to learn, and to provide opportunities for lifelong learning,” Harrison wrote.
Harrison’s argument hinges on the fact that only PBS or public broadcasting networks would proliferate important, urgent news to the nation. She is not accounting for the fact that other outlets would cover breaking, important news.
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