The Budget Crunch, Reflecting on Journalism

Great journalism takes heated, complex issues and simplifies them so individuals can make informed decisions.

Neal Conan, NPR

NPR's Talk of the Nation with Neal Conan yesterday focused on the purposed Federal budget cuts specifically on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Besides open debate, argument and reasoning, what made this program stand out as good journalism is the way the topic was handled. NPR is publicly supported by the tax money that is purposed to be cut, yet the program presented good arguments with many perspectives from both sides of the issue.

The program covered concrete facts, and let people voice key opinions. Conan read emails and tweets. People called in to express their ideas. All this in addition to having three key leaders interviewed on the show: Tom Rosenstiel, Doug Lamborn and Earl Blumenauer. Each was given equal time. The program is so polished it makes journalism look easy, but it's not.

Below are some my notes of the arguments presented both for and against using tax money to fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Earl Blumenauer D-OR 3rd D.

Arguments to Keep CPB's Budget

• CPB educates people.
• No other commercial news organizations cover foreign affairs as throughly.
• The content found on public radio isn't found on commercial stations.
• CPB Provides essential infrastructure to help educate, engage voters.
• CPB facilitates national dialog.
• Start by cutting big fish and worry about the small ones later.
• Cutting smaller programs will give a false sense of real fiscal improvements.
• Republicans simply cutting its budget because of its political ideology.

Doug Lamborn R-CO 5th D.

Arguments to Cut CPB's Budget

• Budget cuts must start somewhere.
• Budget cuts won't eliminate CPB.
• Everyone needs to give.
• Taxpayers can't pay for everything.
• If private sector can't sustain it then maybe it isn't worth keeping.
• CPB can find new sources of revenue.
• CPB might not be the national treasure that some people think it is.
• Others are also giving up things they don't want to loose.

Tom Rosenstiel, PEW Research

The Facts

• CPB receives $430 million each year from tax payers of which 75% goes toward public television and 25% to public radio.
• About 10% of NPRs budget comes from tax money.
• U.S. government spending a $1.6 trillion dollar deffecite just this year.
• U.S. national debt at $14 trillion dollars.
• Commercial television news (ABC, CBS, NBC) audience is half compared to what it was 20 years ago and so it's their staff.
• More poeple listen to NPR than all those who watch the major national newscasts.
• If CPB's budget does lose federal tax money smaller rural areas will be hurt the most.
• About 27 million people listen to NPR each week.
• About 20 million people watch the network evening news.
• More people listen to NPR than perhaps any other individual news outlet.

Conclusion

This piece is an excellent example of journalism. It is a touchy subject reported in such a way that each side is represented fairly. Balance and accuracy is crucial to good journalism. I think the piece encourages great journalism. If NPR can cover it's own potential budget cuts without losing objectivity then so should every reporter. Great journalists take heated, complex issues and simplify them so individuals can make informed decisions.