The perennial debate regarding whether federal subsidies for public TV and radio should be continued is on the front-burner again. It's true – as the subsidy advocates never cease to remind us – that subsidies are just a tiny drop in the bucket of annual federal outlays. They are only about $535 million annually for both public television and radio.
This federal support is largely distributed to the quasi-public – or quasi-private if you prefer – Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which then channels the money to the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) to fund television programming and National Public Radio (NPR) to fund radio programming.
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