Dru Sefton

Petitions with more than 660,000 signatures to save the Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding will be presented to Congress March 21 after a rally for parents and kids near the Capitol. The event is sponsored by five advocacy organizations including the progressive hub MoveOn.org, media reformer Free Press and ParentsTogether Action, a family issues nonprofit. PBS is not a co-sponsor. The petitions urge members of Congress to reject President Donald Trump’s initial budget proposal, which calls for zeroing out of CPB funding.

Trump’s decision to end CPB support “was expected from a president who believes the media are enemies of the American people,” Free Press CEO Craig Aaron said. “But members of Congress should do themselves a favor by listening to the voices of their many constituents. These people believe in overwhelmingly numbers that support for NPR and PBS programming, including PBS Kids, is taxpayer money well spent.”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Board of Directors unanimously approved a resolution urging the Federal Communications Commission to avoid allowing “white areas” that would lack public television coverage after the upcoming spectrum auction and channel repacking.

Vinnie Curren, CPB’s chief operating officer, told the CPB Board that it has identified “half a dozen major communities” where auctions could occur and where the pubTV station “is operated by an institution whose primary mission was not public broadcasting,” such as a university or government agency. CPB has a “particular concern,” Curren said, that those communities may be at risk of losing an over-the-air public television signal completely. Curren did not identify the stations.

The resolution states that CPB, “as the steward of the federal appropriation, urges the Federal Communications Commission to adopt rules and practices with regard to its spectrum incentive auction and repacking process to ensure that no white areas be created and that universal access to free over the air public television service be preserved.”

CPB President Pat Harrison said she and PBS President Paula Kerger have requested one-on-one meetings with FCC Chairman Wheeler to express CPB’s viewpoint, though Wheeler has said he is not taking individual meetings, Harrison said. Representatives from CPB, PBS and the Association of Public Television Stations are also hoping to meet with commissioners, said Michael Levy, CPB’s executive vice president.