ABC News Frets Over PBS Cuts: 'Big Bird on the Chopping Block?'
The ABCNews.com website on
Tuesday used the Sesame Street character Big Bird to worry about
potential Republican cuts to PBS. Next to a picture of the forlorn
puppet and some concerned children, a graphic alerted, "Big Bird on the Chopping Block?"
The article,
by Huma Khan, discussed the efforts by the House GOP to cut of funding
to PBS, but didn't feature a single quote from any such Republican.
Yet, the reporter made sure to highlight fears by NPR's Vivian
Schiller: "[Cuts would] would diminish stations' ability to bring
high-quality local, national and international news to their
communities, as well as local arts, music and cultural programming that
other media don't present."
PBS
President Paula Kerger implored, "It's America's children who will feel
the greatest loss, especially those who can't attend preschool." Khan
did allow, "This is not the first attempt by Congress to cut funding for
what many Republicans see as liberal-leaning broadcast operations."
Later in the piece, however, Khan attempted to dismiss concerns of a liberal bias:
While NPR has long been eyed as Republicans as liberal leaning, its audience base is diverse. Forty-five percent of its audience identify themselves as moderate, while 29 percent identify as liberal and 22 percent as Republicans, according to a Pew Research Center poll released in September. But most of its audience may be more sympathetic toward Democrats than other broadcast outlets.
- Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
