AllGov - Independent Agencies - Corporation for Public Broadcasting

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Overview

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was created to foster non-commercial public radio and television programming, including educational, cultural and civic programs. Supported through a combination of government funding, state funding and private donations, the CPB was designed to operate as independently as possible from political influence. The CPB does not actually own or operate any television or radio broadcast stations, nor does it produce any public programming. Rather, the CPB provides approximately 89% of its $415 million annual budget in the form of grants to support independent stations, directors and producers. The CPB currently supports approximately 350 public television stations and 800 public radio stations.

History

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was created by President Lyndon B. Johnson through the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. The Public Broadcasting Act was created to foster and promote non-commercial public radio and television, including educational, cultural and civic programming. In the words of President Johnson, “It will give a wider and, I think, stronger voice to educational radio and television by providing new funds for broadcast facilities. It will launch a major study of television's use in the nation's classrooms and their potential use throughout the world. Finally - and most important - it builds a new institution: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”

The CPB was inaugurated during a time of intense interest in national television and radio broadcasting. At the time, three commercial networks dominated the American television market, and nearly all educational programming was broadcast by independent television stations scattered across the country. Of the 326 noncommercial radio stations, most were funded by a mix of university, state and private funding, with little communication or organization among them.

In 1962, the Education Television Facilities Act was passed by Congress, designed to encourage the use of television facilities in schools and colleges around the country. Three years later, the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television called for the creation of a national broadcasting service, a recommendation that served as the impetus for the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting two years later.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting initially provided funding and programming through the National Educational Television network (NET), the first network of educational television programming in the United States, which was created in 1952 through a grant by the Ford Foundation. In 1969, the CPB created its own television network, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), after NET came under fire for broadcasting controversial programs about race relations and the Vietnam War. The following year, the National Public Radio (NPR) network was established to distribute and produce noncommercial radio content on a national scale.

In 1983, the American Public Radio Network was formed as an alternative to NPR. It was renamed Public Radio International in 1994, and remains another important affiliate of the CPB and NPR. PRI currently produces more than 400 hours of news and cultural programming per week.

The CPB is headed by a nine-member Board of Directors, each appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a six-year term. Of the nine members, no more than five can be members of the same political party. Each year, the Board selects one of its members to be Chairman.

Public Radio - A Short History

History of Public Broadcasting

What it Does

The main role of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is to provide grants to local public radio and television stations and independent public media producers. Although levels of federal funding have varied widely throughout the Corporation’s history, since FY 2006 the CPB has received a flat $400 million allocation from Congress, in addition to approximately $15 million in interest per year. Of the $415 million total, approximately $370 million goes into direct grants, with the remaining $45 million going into CPB operations and system support. In addition to federal funding, which makes up only 20% of the annual budget, the CPB also receives approximately 25% of its funding through state and local taxes, with the remaining 55% coming from private donations.

Nearly all of the Corporation’s direct grants fall into four categories: grants to public television stations, grants to public radio stations, grants for public television programming and grants for public radio programming.

Local Public Television Stations ($200 million)

Support for the operation and staffing of approximately 350 independent local television stations. Known as Community Service Grants, these unrestricted funds are given to qualified public TV stations and give stations the flexibility to provide programming, outreach initiatives and other services.

Local Public Radio Stations ($62 million)

Support for the continued operation and staffing of approximately 800 local radio stations across the country. This funding also includes $4 million for the Rural Listener Access Incentive Fund (RLAIF), which is focused on improving access to radio programming for rural Americans.

TV Programming Grants ($78 million)

The CPB provides a wide variety of grants and support to independent television programming. The largest program is the National Program Service, approximately $24 million in grants provided through the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Programs supported by this grant include NewsHour with Jim Lehrer as well as classic TV programming such as Sesame Street and Reading Rainbow.

Smaller programs include the Independent Television Service (ITVS) program, which provides more than $11 million to support marketing, publicity and outreach operations for independent television producers, and the Opportunity Fund, which invests approximately $11 million to make public television more financially viable in the long-term. Opportunity Fund investments have included Masterpiece Theater and NOVA.

Other programs include the Program Challenge Fund ($8.5 million), which supports limited specials and series, including a Carrier, 10-part series on the crew of the aircraft carrier Nimitz and The Elegant Universe, a four-part series on the universe hosted by physicist Brian Greene. The National Minority Consortia ($3.2 million), is a group of six independent broadcasting organizations, representing five different minority group in the US: African American, Latinos, Native Americans (see also Native Public Media), Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Finally there is the General Program Funds, $19 million in grants set aside for other educational, cultural and instructional public television programming that falls outside of the scope of the other grants.

Radio Programming Grants ($30 million)

The majority of CPB funding for radio programming falls under the Radio National Program Production and Acquisition Grants (NPPAG) program, which provides $22 million per year to support the production, promotion and distribution of national radio programs. Programming includes the StoryCorps project, which uses permanent and mobile recording booths in public spaces to collect personal stories from the public. An additional $8 million is provided through the Radio Program Fund, which supports the creation of new radio programming, especially news, music and diverse programming.

System Support ($24 million)

The System Support category includes approximately $3 million in administrative support for the Minority Consortia and ITVS programs, as well as nearly $10 million in research and development to support long-term planning and decision-making for public programming. This category also includes $4 million in support for the PBS TV Interconnection program, which funds half the cost of the technology for broadcasting and distributing television programming, including satellite, wireless and wired infrastructure. This category also includes more than $7 million in music copyright fees per year.

CPB Operations ($20 million)

Funding for CPB operations is federally limited to 5% of the total CPB allocated budget. These funds go entirely towards CPB staffing and operating costs.

Additional Expenses ($80 million)

In addition to the general grants provided by federal funding, the CPB has received some $80 million in special appropriations, including $30 million to support the transition from analog to digital transmission for public television stations, $26 million to develop an interconnected multi-channel public television system, and $24 million to support improved reading and educational programming for high-poverty children ages two to eight.

Where Does the Money Go

The largest stakeholders to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting include the 750 television and radio stations that received CPB funding, as well as the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which has traditionally received between 25-35% of its funding through the CPB. The CPB also supports thousands of independent media producers and programmers.

How to Apply for CPB Grants

Grants Already Funded

Controversies

Objectivity

Although supported entirely through federal funding, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has a legal mandate to ensure objectivity and balance in all programming. Towards this end, the CPB was organized under a nine-member board of directors, of which only five could be from the same party. Nonetheless, the CPB has been criticized for succumbing to political pressure.

The most recent controversy arose in 2003, under the chairmanship of Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, who had been appointed chair by President George W. Bush. Known for his aggressively conservative position, Tomlinson commissioned a study of the TV program NOW with Bill Moyers shortly after being appointed, without informing the rest of the CPB board of directors. Tomlinson saw the investigation as an attempt to rid the CPB of what he saw as a liberal bias.

Moyers eventually resigned, saying "I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee.”

In 2005, the Office of the Inspector General of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting produced a report on the tenure of Tomlinson. The report (PDF) found that Tomlinson “violated statutory provisions and the Director’s Code of Ethics by dealing directly with one of the creators of a new public affairs program during negotiations with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS),” and also concluded that Tomlinson had been “strongly motivated by political considerations in filling the president/CEO position." Under pressure from the rest of the Board, Tomlinson resigned in 2005 and was replaced by Cheryl Halpern, an active Republican and board member of the International Republican Institute.

Currently, both the Chairman and the President of the CPB are Republicans, as are a total of five of the members of its nine board seats. In order to respond to concerns of bias, the CPB Ombudsman releases an annual “Open to the Public”

Objectivity report

, detailing CPB’s efforts to remain objective and balanced in its support of public programming.

Debate

There have been many debates about the proper level of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and whether or not it should be federally funded at all. In 1994, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich led an unsuccessful charge to “zero out” all federal funding for the CPB.

In 2005, a Congressional subcommittee in the House of Representatives voted to cut the Corporation for Public Broadcasting budget by $100 million and take steps to eliminate the program entirely within two years. The vote was eventually reversed after a widespread public protest campaign.

Gingrich wants to “zero-out” federal funding to CPB (Current)

Public Broadcasting Targeted By House: Panel Seeks to End CPB's Funding Within 2 Years (by Shailagh Murray, Washington Post)

House Vote Spares Public Broadcasting Funds: Health, Education and Labor Programs Face Cuts Under Major Spending Bill

(by Shailagh Murray and Paul Farhi, Washington Post)

Suggested Reforms

Independent Trust

In an article in Extra!, Steve Randall and Peter Hart argue that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has become distinctly pro-establishment and pro-corporate. They suggest that the only way to regain the independence and objectivity of the CPB is to replace the politically appointed Board of Directors with an independent trust. This move, they argue, could be funded through a tax on advertising or commercial broadcast license sales, potentially generating $1 billion in annual funding and thereby eliminating the CPB’s dependence on federal funding.

Time to Unplug the CPB: Replace corrupt board with independent trust (by Steve Rendall and Peter Hart, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting)

Privatization

Adam Thierer of The Heritage Foundation argues that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting should be privatized. Thierer notes that when the CPB was created, to foster public educational television and radio programming, such programming was rare. Now, with a wide variety of commercial and non-commercial educational and informational programming available, the original mission of the CPB is obsolete. Thierer also argues that the CPB should be successful enough to stand on its own, and that privatization would finally end the controversy over the political bias of the Corporation.

Time to Let the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Stand on Its Own

(by Adam D. Thierer, Heritage Foundation)

Congressional Oversight

Former Directors

The most controversial former director of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, who served from 2003-2005. Tomlinson began his career as a reporter, and joined the Washington bureau of the Reader’s Digest in 1968. During the Vietnam War, Tomlinson served as a correspondent, and in 1982 he was nominated by President Reagan to serve as Director of the Voice of America. Tomlinson soon became known for pushing an aggressive conservative program, and served as a member of the Board for International Broadcasting, where he became close friends with Karl Rove, who later served as an advisor to President George W. Bush. In 2000, President Clinton appointed Tomlinson to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and in 2003 President Bush appointed him chairman of the CPB.

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