Alabama Public Television (APTV) executive director Wayne Reid and network director of external affairs Jack Williams believe the recent cuts to government funding to the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB) were predictable because of the “bias problem” that exists with their national programming.
Trump’s rescissions package that recently passed by Congress included $9 billion in cuts for global aid programs and the CPB, which control National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Station (PBS).
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APTV executives discussed the issue during a recent appearance on “Capitol Journal.”
“[E]ver since I came on and we would go to national meetings, one of the things we took to the leadership at NPR and at PBS at every meeting that we went to is we have biased issues and we have bias problems,” Reid said.
“And it’s whether they’re in their echo chamber up in New York or Washington, and they kind of listen to each other and say, ‘no, we’re not.’ But the problem is, there was a lot of states that would say there’s problems that we need to get fixed. And we have pushed that from the state level of Alabama and a lot of other states for several years now, since I’ve been here. And Jack started that crusade even before I did.”
Williams agreed with his colleague on the problem.
“And Wayne’s been very gracious to let me continue on that,” Williams said.
“But we’ve actually cobbled together at least eight, and I think it grew to 12 or 14 state networks that have expressed deep dissatisfaction with how NewsHour programming has been done in Washington Week. I brought this up directly to the CEO of PBS and CEO of NPR in a panel discussion in February, in Washington, D.C. “I’ve had conversations with the chairman of the Board for NPR and the chairman of the board for PBS. And I’ve seen both CEOs this week say, ‘there’s no bias.’ And I think as long as they double down on that, it’s going to make it more difficult for us to work with the federal government in the future.”
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The APTV executives also made the argument that their product on the state level is very different and non-biased.
“I certainly sit down with our members of Congress and remind them that we’re not PBS. We’re not NPR,” Williams said. “We’re focused on the state program, our program, and things we do at Capitol Journal, our coverage of the state house. Those are things that go away if we go away — our high school football and basketball.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
