No2 Cents for Public Radio? Seriously?

Listening to my unbiased, commercial-free, intelligent, community news source (NPR), I heard yet another stupid thing to come out of one our Republican representatives, Kristi Noem, from SD (whom, of course, I never voted for). Guess what's next on her hit-list of new pick-on, slam-campaign, falling even further into Draconian-style politics?

Kristi Noem said she doesn't think a dime of government money should be wasted on Public Television or Radio. That it should be privatized, like say FOX (good one, Kristi). After I practically coughed up coffee out my nose, I was so mad, I started a letter writing campaign.

Really, Kristi? Too much money, eh? $1.25 is what the average taxpayer pays each year for millions of Americans to use PBS, 365 days a year, yet that's TOO MUCH?

Check this out to support PBS:

http://www.170millionamericans.org/


Feel free to use part/all of my letter and send it to your representative/congressman/governor:

Here's a link for SD if you prefer to do this e-mail. If you're out-of-state, find out who your representative is.

http://noem.house.gov/index.cfm/contact?p=contact-form

Dear Rep. Noem,

Today I heard on SD Public Radio that you voted to cancel funding to PBS. I was disappointed to hear this but even more disappointed to hear that you thought S. Dakotans/the general public can get their news in many different ways which make public radio/television unnecessary for the tiny amount of government funding that it currently gets.

This couldn't be farther from the truth if you're working class.

I'm an educator and teach students from varying backgrounds. Many of the students I teach are from either remote areas of SD/WY or from working class families where things such as cable TV, high speed internet or even $70 newspaper subscriptions are just too expensive for working-families (to get their news as you implied in your interview). Depending ONLY upon commercial-for-profit news coverage is not acceptable, is non-educational and biased at best.

Many teachers and families also rely upon the educational programming benefits public radio and television offer.

Yanking away the tiny amount of funding for a highly necessary educational tool for South Dakotans cannot be the answer. Maybe we should look at reducing internal-bureaucratic wasteful spending as a better solution, rather than punish working class families.

We beg you to re-think this and hope you will do the right thing.

Thank you,