Thought I would post this which is directly from the NPR website:
Quote:
Governments around the world created publicly funded media systems to fill information needs that would not be met by commercial media, including:
- Delivering news to regions that are so remote, small or rural that it would not be profitable for a commercial newsroom.
- Covering topics like public affairs programming and international news, that are not reliably attractive to advertisers or subscribers.
- Covering communities that have been traditionally ignored by mainstream news organizations.
In the United States, Congress created and funded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1967, to support a system of local radio and television stations, who would in turn support PBS and NPR, which would create national content that could be distributed to the local stations.
But that funding was never enough to sustain the whole system. Where the British government spends close to $100 a year per citizen on the BBC, the United States spends $1.50 per citizen on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Pickard said.
As a result, American public media turns to three other funding sources: corporate sponsorships, large philanthropic organizations and "donors like you."
Keeping in mind this model was created before the advent of the internet the three bullets above are obsolete now that technology has conquered the connectivity moat that previously existed. In addition, information has been democratized and diversified more than at any point in history. We can argue the pros and cons of that in another thread.
So, in reality, NPR is actually more of a subsidiary and leech of the CPB the latter of which was created and funded by Congress. NPR's mission was to basically cover the national and international component of news while the CPB handled local coverage. Considering the state of the industry now, there is zero reason for any direct funding of NPR (the 1% number), period. Furthermore, CPB has to pay license fees back to NPR for the national/international content which is also a revenue stream for NPR. This should be killed as well as individuals can simply visit one of millions of news organization on the web to get the national/international news they want.
CPB focused more on local / educational programming and less "news" which is fine. Let individuals get their own news without the potential propaganda influence by a government.
