It’s pledge time on my local NPR station. My station likes to use various “what if” scenarios to convince people to donate. “What if you took that money you spend on fancy coffee each day and donated it to public radio?” “What if you paid the same amount for public radio as you do for cable TV or Internet access?” Lately I have been thinking, “What if everyone who made a pledge to their local NPR also wrote a letter to their policymakers demanding better funding for public media in America?”
Did you know that in America we spend only about $1.35 per capita on our public media system? Ours is among the lowest-funded systems in the world. Compare this to Canada which spends over $22 a person, and England which spends a whopping $80 per person, per year.
So be sure to call your local NPR station and make a pledge – they need it, and they deserve it. However, if you want to do more than make a pledge, if you want to make a difference and try to fight for a better public media system in America, visit www.NewPublicMedia.org and sign up to get involved.
Josh Stearns 