The Corporate Dictatorship of PBS and NPR

On November 7, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Public Broadcasting Act.

The act set up public broadcasting in the United States, by establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which led to the creation of the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, and National Public Radio.

After signing the act into law, Johnson said that, “It announces to the world that our Nation wants more than just material wealth; our Nation wants more than a "chicken in every pot." We in America have an appetite for excellence, too. While we work every day to produce new goods and to create new wealth, we want most of all to enrich man's spirit. That is the purpose of this act.”

The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 states that, “It is in the public interest to encourage the growth and development of public radio and television broadcasting, including the use of such media for instructional, educational, and cultural purposes… it is necessary and appropriate for the Federal Government to complement, assist, and support a national policy that will most effectively make public telecommunications services available to all citizens of the United States.”

When public broadcasting in America was first established, the intent was that Congress would provide funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which would in turn divide that funding up among the various public television and radio stations across the country.

This worked great for years.

The Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio were able to bring millions of Americans educational programming, independent news and political analysis and a host of other culturally stimulating programs.

But over time, federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been slashed.

Today, Conservative across America are slashing the budgets of their local public television stations, arguing that the wide array of media offerings available today makes public television as we know it obsolete.

Public broadcasting institutions are now being forced to rely more and more on corporate cash as a result of the huge drop in government funding.

This means that PBS and NPR are now forced to filter what they play on their airwaves, so that they don’t piss off their corporate backers. 

This is where the documentary “Citizen Koch” comes in.

“Citizen Koch” is a documentary about money and politics, focusing heavily on the uprising that took place in Wisconsin in 2011 and 2012.  

It talks about how the Citizens United decision paved the way for secretive political spending by major players like the Koch Brothers.

The documentary was originally supposed to air on PBS stations nationwide, but its funding was abruptly cut off after David Koch became offended by another PBS documentary that had been critical of billionaire industrialists trying to take over the world in the wake of growing income inequality.

But why would PBS care if David Koch didn’t like one of their documentaries?

Because according to several reports, David Koch has donated upwards of $23 million to public television.  And when you donate $23 million dollars to public television, you get more than just a totebag or a coffee mug – you get a great deal of influence over the on-air programming.

This is the kind of influence and control that we see in mainstream media today too. 

Thanks to the giant transnational corporations that own them, mainstream media outlets are forced to tailor their programming to appease their corporate backers.

While we have come to accept and live with this kind of corporate control over mainstream media in America, PBS and NPR have always been a breath of fresh air, free from corporate dictatorship…until now.

It’s time to take back our public airwaves, and cut-off the corporate control over them, so that billionaires like David Koch don’t get to choose what you watch on TV.

And the only way to do that is by stopping the federal funding cuts to public radio and television.

Call your members of Congress, and tell them to protect funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, so that it can continue its work to “enrich man’s spirit.”