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Yeah yeah, you've heard it all before, but this time it's true. (Yeah yeah, you've heard that too.)
A House panel has voted to slash federal spending on public broadcasting, by 25% this year ($100 million) and to end funding altogether within two years. Not only would this kill all those commercial-free kid shows we grew up with (Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow,...) and all the new ones since we stopped watching (Arthur, Clifford the Big Red Dog,...), but it would also kill NPR one of the best, informative, least-biased, world-aware news sources out there.
MoveOn.org is circulating a petition to try to stop this travesty. If you still don't believe it's true this time, read The Washington Post article.
Update (Friday, 17 June 2005): It appears that NPR is very much self-funding and so won't be terribly impacted by this measure. However, video broadcasting—like PBS which receives about a quarter of their income from CPB and gov't grants—will be severely impacted. FWIW, Sesame Street is the 6th most popular children's show, and the 4th most popular among PBS's children's programming.
