House Cuts Public Broadcasting Funds; Fight Moves to Senate

CWA and its media sectors are condemning the House of Representatives for voting to strip all funding from the current year's budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps support PBS, NPR and local stations nationwide.

NABET-CWA President Jim Joyce said the measure is extremely short-sighted and could lead to thousands of lost jobs, along with the high-quality radio and TV programming that more than 170 million Americans tune in to every day.

"This is another example of using the budget process to make an ideological attack, and that's wrong," Joyce said. "Losing our public broadcasting operations would be devastating, because a unique source of news, education and entertainment would no longer be available."

TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said, "The importance of public broadcasting should not be underestimated to the communities that are served. Media industries have shed as many as 40,000 workers over the last four years, substantially reducing local coverage. This would add insult to injury."

House Republicans sought to kill the small, but essential, subsidy for public broadcasting by including it in a $61 million package of cuts in the current year's budget. The budget bill is now in the Senate's hands and must be acted on by March 5 to prevent a government shutdown.

CWA, NABET-CWA and the Guild together represent about 2,000 workers at PBS, NPR and local public broadcasting stations around the country. Help them fight to save jobs and programming by calling your U.S. senators today. Click here to join the campaign.