David Obey: “what this amendment does is eliminate all of the funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I think that would…”

“what this amendment does is eliminate all of the funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I think that would be a very ill-advised thing to do. This Congress has spoken on funding for that organization many times. It has had strong support, often bipartisan support. The gentleman complains about the fact that it is advance funded. It is advance funded for two reasons: number one, so that you can assure some kind of political independence from political pressure, and, secondly, because programmers need advance time in order to plan their programming. The advance funding concept was begun 31 years ago by that notorious big spender Jerry Ford when he was President, my good friend, my good buddy. If this amendment passes, 1,150 public radio and TV stations will be hurt. That will fall especially hard on rural stations. I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think we ought to do anything that would lead us 1 inch more toward a world in which the only kind of news we got was from the commercial stations feeding us the lately breathless news about Britney Spears, Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell. I would like to see a little bit better than that, and I think we get it from public broadcasting.”