Political Quotes

“Thank you for your eloquent statement, your support. And your being with us here this evening is very important. I think your point about how we start the day--how many of us were relying on public broadcasting for up-to-the-minute results of what was going on in Egypt at a time when the large corporate news organizations are cutting back their foreign coverage. Because of the dedication of hundreds of thousands of sponsors, volunteer contributors, public broadcasting has expanded its international coverage extraordinarily so. But before I turn to my good friend from New York, I would just make one reference, however. Although the international is certainly critical, and it's very important for us here in Congress, one of the things that I think is so essential to zero in on is the local programing for rural and small-town America. Lakeland Public Broadcasting in Bemidji, Minnesota, the only broadcaster--the only broadcaster--for much of their service territory. In Colorado, KBNF is increasingly the point source of news and public affairs programing, emergency preparedness alert, as the print media continues to shrink and corporations kind of move in and automate small radio markets. I could go on through the list. I won't because I do want to provide time. But there is special coverage in the upper Midwest, in the Northwest, in the Mountain States that is tailored to hard-to-serve areas that no commercial station is willing to invest in this type of quality.”