Wyoming Public Media Could Be Defunded By Friday

Public Radio and TV are one step closer to being defunded as a bill moves through the U.S. Senate.

The bill contains numerous spending cuts on many issues, including broadcasting, totaling approximately $ 9 billion, and must reach the President's desk by this Friday.

It passed the Senate at 2 am Thursday and is now on its way to a vote in the House.

The cuts would be temporary, taking away two years of funding for public media.

Any permanent cuts would need to be made with a different sort of budget bill.

Wyoming Public Media receives approximately $ 1.2 million annually from the federal government. That is about 1/3 of their local budget. The rest comes from corporate sponsors and donations.

Much of the argument against funding Public Media revolves around accusations of biased reporting and programming. Something that Public Media denies that they are guilty of.

But the issue of whether we should fund Public Media goes way beyond bias.

The media group makes the case that they are necessary, especially to rural communities.

But most of the people who live in rural areas, like many communities in Wyoming, do not tune in to or consume Public Media in any way.

Plus, modern technology has left Public Media behind, rendering them obsolete. This has been the case for over a decade, if not more.

Public radio and television came about during a time when there was not much for TV and Radio across the nation. Especially in rural states like Wyoming. Satellite and cable TV had not been invented, nor had the internet.

It was supposed to provide taxpayer-funded news, entertainment, and education to areas of the nation with little, if any, broadcasting.

But today we have more media, from many different sources, than the average person knows what to do with.