Parade Shills for PBS to Get $400 Million in Federal Funding

     The headline for the poll may as well have read “Vote Yes to Save PBS,” but the editors at Parade magazine didn’t go quite that far.

      A poll on Parade’s Web site posted on May 4 ask respondents how Congress should vote on supporting PBS with $400 million in funding, or as they put it – “whether to continue supporting Big Bird – or give him the ax.” And on top of that, NPR affiliates have joined in a campaign to skew the poll’s results.

     The headline for the poll may as well have read “Vote Yes to Save PBS,” but the editors at Parade magazine didn’t go quite that far.

      A poll on Parade’s Web site posted on May 4 ask respondents how Congress should vote on supporting PBS with $400 million in funding, or as they put it – “whether to continue supporting Big Bird – or give him the ax.” And on top of that, NPR affiliates have joined in a campaign to skew the poll’s results.

      “In the next few months, Congress will decide whether to continue supporting Big Bird – or give him the ax. Public broadcasting gets around $400 million annually from the U.S. government, which covers about 15% of local station budgets. (Most shows are funded primarily by producers, viewer donations, private foundations and corporations.) Now the Bush Administration has proposed cutting funding by half,” Lyric Wallwork Winik and Mark Naymik wrote for Parade on May 4.

     Aside from having the language of the poll slanted, several NPR affiliates are circulating e-mail and posting messages on their Web sites encouraging listeners to vote for Congress to fund PBS. WITF, an NPR affiliate in Pennsylvania had the following message:

“If you believe that the federal government should continue its support for PBS, NPR and local Public Television and Radio stations, please go to [the Web site] and vote YES!

In its most recent edition, PARADE magazine posed the question of whether the federal government should continue its support for PBS and, by implication, NPR and the entire Public Broadcasting industry as well. PARADE magazine is distributed by more than 400 Sunday newspapers, including several in central Pennsylvania. While this is an unscientific poll put forward by one magazine, because of its wide circulation – estimated at 32 million households – the results of the poll could have an impact on policy-makers who must make funding decisions under difficult fiscal constraints.”

     Parade magazine also included a liberal media pundit to give his thoughts on PBS funding.

     “Responds Eric Boehlert, senior fellow at Media Matters, a nonprofit media watchdog group: ‘PBS is a success story for the government, ranking up there with the national parks. Any cuts would hurt the millions of people who can’t or won’t pay for cable,’” Winik and Naymik wrote.

     The Media Research Center has long shown that PBS and NPR have a history of displaying a liberal tilt funded by taxpayer dollars.