Broadcast Workers Defend Public Media

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Facing defunding threats by Congressional Republicans, public broadcasting workers took to the steps of the U.S. Capitol yesterday afternoon to deliver petitions with 1.2 million signatures supporting “quality education, entertainment, public affairs, art, and news programming for communities and citizens around this country who need it the most.” Sesame Street “Gordon” actor Roscoe Orman declared that “We have to fight back against this attack on what we believe to be the lifeblood of this country.” “We’ll go dark if the funding is eliminated,” added Jim Joyce, President of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-CWA. “Some claim this is about balancing the budget,” said American Federation of Television and Radio Artists President Roberta Reardon (r), “but just as stripping Americans of their rights to collectively bargain in Wisconsin is not the way to balance a budget, so stripping Americans - and those who need it the most - of their access to public media is not the way to balance our nation’s budget. An investment in our nation’s public media is an investment in jobs and quality programming.” Click here now to email your senators and tell them, “Don't zero out funding for public media.” – report/photo by Adam Wright