Bill Moyers talks with Democracy Now! about the conservative attack on PBS and Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the U.S.
Some excerpts:
BILL MOYERS: Well, there's a war going on. The administration is far more clever than any administration, in my knowledge, at manipulating the agenda, determining what the Washington press corps reports and doesn't report. Also, the right wing minority has a monopoly power over the instruments of government, over the House, the Senate and the White House. In 1954, when Newt Gingrich tried to de-fund and eliminate Public --
AMY GOODMAN: 1994.
BILL MOYERS: 1994, there was a Democrat in the White House. You had a divided government, so that one party could serve as a check on the other party. We don't have that now. The right wing has consolidated its control over the United States government, and it can now bully its way through to what it wants, even though it may not represent the majority. Look at what's happening to John Bolton. I mean, clearly he's not the qualified man for the U.N. The administration won't pull him back. Clearly Kenneth Tomlinson shouldn't be president – chairman of the board of CPB, but they have the power to do what they want to do, irrespective of public opinion, and that's what has happened.
These cuts -- look, Public Broadcasting only gets about 16% of its total budget from the United States Congress, from the taxpayers. But that 16% is sufficient to provide the basic infrastructure support for the stations around the country. The real losers, if these budget cuts go through -- it's not programming per se, although we will be hurt in terms of what we can produce, but the real losers will be the local stations around the country that depend upon these public funds to provide their station operations, their infrastructure and the conversion to digital television, which is the future. So this is a blow – these budget cuts are a blow at the local stations that are serving communities all over this country.
AMY GOODMAN: What’s your prediction? I mean the House has not voted -- ultimately has not come out of Congress yet. Do you think people will weigh in? I mean, even on the issue of the president for Corporation for Public Broadcasting, what mechanism is there for the public to have a say?
BILL MOYERS: In 1994, when Newt Gingrich tried this, and in the 1970s when Richard Nixon tried this, moderate Republicans from around the country and in Congress rose up to defend Public Broadcasting. What has happened now is that moderate Republicans have thrown in the towel. They have no influence in their own party, so the right wingers are driving this. I believe these budget cuts -- I believe the right wing will succeed in this effort for the first time in our history. I believe they will succeed in de-funding Public Broadcasting, because the Republican Party has given up on it.
I mean, what people need to do -- Democrats are for this, they've always been for public schools, public libraries, public transportation, public parks, and Public Broadcasting. The right wingers that now control the United States government are against everything public. This is only one of the fronts in their long war to privatize anything public in this country supported by the United States government. So the only way these budget cuts are going to be resisted is if people across the country reach out to Republicans, to the moderates in their states and in Congress, the few of them that there are, and say we don't agree with this.
And I'm not sure that even that's going to work. I feel more pessimistic at the moment about the future of Public Broadcasting than I ever have in my 35 years, despite the Nixon attacks, despite Newt Gingrich's attack, because these right wingers are organized. They've got Tomlinson at CPB. They're taking over the governance of Public Broadcasting at that level, and they don't pay any attention to opposition or to protest or to pressure. They are actually dogmatic and determined in their agenda. So it will take a bipartisan response to what is happening by the right wing. But I'm not optimistic about that because the Republicans, for the first time, have given up on Public Broadcasting.