The Nation - News from June 29, 1988

The Senate Commerce Committee approved major changes in the way federal money is distributed to public television stations in an effort to better insulate program-funding decisions from politics. The changes are opposed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, whose authority to decide how programming funds should be used would be curtailed. However, the plan is supported by the Public Broadcasting Service, the nonprofit organization of public TV stations that provides programming to member stations. The changes were approved unanimously as an amendment to a CPB funding bill, which was sent to the Senate floor. Under the measure, about 80% of the $37 million that now goes into CPB’s national programming fund would be distributed to stations to buy national programs. CPB would be left with about $8.5 million for new programs.