Cognitive Dissonance
By Mitch Berg
When you talk with public radio people about public funding, you notice there’s a certain schizophrenia.
When The Legislature Isn’t In Session: “It’s wrong to call us “Government Radio”; there really isn’t that much public funding! It’s not all that important…”
When The Legislature Is In Session And Cuts Are Proposed: “Write your legislator to help prevent massive cuts to the programmig you depend on!”
Congress is talking about cutting $4 million from MPR’s subsidy.
Lots of money? Sure – enough to keep my station, AM1280, going for years. And that amounts (according to Gary Eichten on the air yesterday) to 5% of MPR’s operating budget.
Has your budget dropped by 5% in the past year?
UPDATE: At least one wag on Twitter said I was “comparing MPR to AM1280 The Patriot”. Well, that’s ludicrous. There’s no comparison.
Ed and I are better much interviewers than Keri Miller.
Hopefully we’ve put that to rest.
OK, seriously? (I am serious about Miller, but it’s not my real point); I am an MPR News fan. They come closer than most to approaching the news from a fair perspective. They work fairly diligently to balance their coverage. I’m not going to beat them over the head with the partisan stick (much as the likes of Keillor, or the loathsome “On the Media”, or National Public Radio, deserve it, especially in the wake of the Juan Williams fiasco).
Still, if losing their entire federal subsidy equals five percent of the nut, it seems less than unreasonable, in an environment where schools and the Pentagon and people in need are being asked to cut back, to stop considering MPR’s federal subsidy a sacred cow.
February 10th, 2011 at 6:51 am
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/todays-question/archive/2011/02/do-you-agree-with-the-governors-call-for-investment.shtml
February 10th, 2011 at 6:52 am
You should hear the bellyaching………….
Listening to the Current last night I thought they were going to jump off a bridge.
February 10th, 2011 at 6:57 am
only $4 million? That’s not enough!
February 10th, 2011 at 7:10 am
As opposed to listening to The Current and having them make one want to jump off of a bridge, or sit in a tub of hot water by candle light with a razor blade with some of that wailing and moaning that they play.
February 10th, 2011 at 8:52 am
Is that $4 million from MPR or NPR? Either way it’s money wasted (although I do like the classical music).
February 10th, 2011 at 9:13 am
If we cannot de-fund NPR, the war may be lost.
February 10th, 2011 at 9:37 am
Why talk just about cuts? Let’s go for clawbacks!
February 10th, 2011 at 9:53 am
Email sent out by tghe UofM yesterday (not free bus ride and all you can eat pizza):
Welcome to the Rally to Restore Affordability!
February 22 will be a momentous day for University students across the state, and we’d love for you to attend. Join us at the Minnesota State Capitol Rotunda and hear Congressman Keith Ellison, Senator David Senjem, and your fellow students raise their voices in support of the University. As well, you will have the opportunity to sit down with your legislator and there’s all the free pizza you could ever want!
Shuttle buses between Coffman Union and the State Capitol will run continuously from 10:00am – 2:30pm. The Rally kicks off at 12:00pm, followed by lunch and meetings with your legislators.
To attend the Rally, please follow this link (z.umn.edu/rally) to enter your information and select whether or not you’d like to meet the legislator that represents your district. If you’d like some more information on the day and it’s activities, including a lesson in lobbying offered that morning, check out msa.umn.edu/rally.
Hope to see you there!
February 10th, 2011 at 10:37 am
…there’s all the free pizza you could ever want!
A trail of kibble might work better.
February 10th, 2011 at 11:47 am
This is nothing short of a game of Three Card Monty.
Listen up kiddies: All this money you think you’re gonna get are going to go to projects or salaries WELL after you leave your 4 year college. (Unless you’re on the 10-year plan). Big Education (a wholy-owned subsidiary of the DFL) are using you as pawns. By the time the spending happens, you skulls-of-mush will be long gone from college and having to work for a living. And guess who’s gonna pay the bill for all this spending? That’s right…YOU!
But all your profs will be happy.
February 10th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
“All the free pizza you could ever want” has essentially been the DFL platform for the last forty years or so.
February 10th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
To be fair Seifert bought off the U of M CR’s with pizza too.
February 10th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Seifert bought off the U of M CR’s with pizza too
And while I’d never describe it with a term like “bought off”, Bill Fitzsimmons’ sending 2,000 rice krispie bars out onto the floor right in time for the third ballot at the GOP Convention last May was a work of genius.
February 10th, 2011 at 5:29 pm
“’All the free pizza you could ever want’ has essentially been the DFL platform for the last forty years or so.”
Let me apply some Grayson logic to this:
Free pizza = fattening toppings & empty carbs = obesity = health problems = premature death = the DFL just wants to kill people. Thank you very much. Murderers!