The Center for American Rights (CAR), a conservative nonprofit, public interest law firm, urged the FCC to consider opening an inquiry looking at the future financial solvency of public broadcasting given the end of federal funding for NPR and PBS. The aim would be to reallocate the spectrum from insolvent stations.
On its website, CAR states it’s “dedicated to protecting Americans’ most fundamental, constitutional rights.” It focuses on “free speech violations, government overreach and abuse of power.”
“If PBS and NPR cannot prove a viable long-term business model as national networks—and if their individual affiliates cannot show long-term business models in each market—then this Commission needs to consider whether those channels (i.e., that spectrum) will become available in the near future for other potential licensees or uses,” writes CAR President Daniel Suhr in an FCC filing on local TV affiliates meeting their public interest obligations. He cites a press release from July in which PBS advocacy group America’s Public Television Stations predicted, “Local Public Television Stations Will Close After U.S. Congress Votes to Rescind Essential Funding.”
Suhr also cites a line from organization president Kate Riley: “This elimination of federal funding — over 70% would go to local stations — will decimate public media and force many local stations to go dark…”
“Predictions such as these should prompt the Commission to require PBS and NPR and their member stations to provide transparent financial information, to give the Commission a viable long-term business model, and to tell the Commission how they plan to increase donor support while maintaining editorial independence,” Suhr writes.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief