Political Quotes

“The next few days on the floor of the House will be critical for the future of public broadcasting. With the new Republican majority, people here are hoping for saving less than one cent per day on this ideological assault--on what?-- public broadcasting, for 170 million Americans, their Voice of America and their window to the world. In an era when local papers and radio stations are being gobbled up by large conglomerates, public broadcasting's 1,300 stations around the country are increasingly the only source of locally owned, locally controlled content. Now, there is a lot of attention appropriately given to the major stations in America's large cities. We've all seen and heard programming from stations in Boston and San Francisco, New York, even in Portland, Oregon, as Oregon Public Broadcasting is recognized as one of these national leaders. For much of America outside the major metropolitan areas, public broadcasting actually plays an even more important role. In the Rockies, the Pacific Northwest, rural areas, and the upper Midwest, often public broadcasting is not just the best local source. It is the only source of information that relates directly to their communities. The big stations in the large communities are going to be harmed by this assault on public broadcasting. My own public broadcasting in Oregon will lose $2.4 million. It will really harm the quality of their effort.”