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Gingrich Set To Cut Funds For Public TV

John Carmody The Washington Post

The battle over the future of public broadcasting - funding for which is threatened by leaders of the new Republican congressional majority - is starting to heat up.

Leaders of the major state and regional public TV systems which, along with public radio, would be most affected by major funding cuts - have scheduled a meeting in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday on how best to mobilize support in Congress and in the Clinton administration.

Out in Los Angeles, public station KCET has already mounted a counterattack, using prominent board members in on-air appearances who appeal to viewers to urge Congress to continue to support public broadcasting.

Monday night, a powerful foe of public broadcasting, House speakerto-be Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., spelled out on C-SPAN his opposition to continued federal funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which he called “this little sandbox for the rich” created by President Lyndon Johnson.

Gingrich, who has stated repeatedly he wants to “zero fund” CPB, offered to help back a privately funded public broadcasting system. He pledged “that every year for the next five years I will give at least $2,000 - I’ll make a speech and give $2,000 to a privately funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And I’m going to challenge every person who writes me about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ‘Put up or shut up, but if you love it, pay for it.’ …

“Why would you say to some poor worker out here with three kids, ‘We’re now going to take your money and tax you for a program you may never watch?”’

He made the pledge during a onehour interview with C-SPAN founder and Chief Executive Officer Brian Lamb taped Friday in Atlanta and seen Monday night on the public affairs cable network.

Apprised Monday of the speakerto-be’s remarks, CPB President Richard Carlson said he remains convinced Gingrich “doesn’t understand how the system works. He’s been fed a lot of unreliable information, I’m afraid.”

Carlson said: “Congressman Gingrich is interested in ideas. I’ve got to believe he’s willing to listen to the facts. We’re not an ‘elite,’ and programmatic decisions aren’t made by an ‘elite.”’