Kerger -- Philanthropy, Not Government, Funds PBS

When, during the first presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle, then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney proclaimed to PBS' own Jim Lehrer that he would cut funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of his presidency, all eyes were suddenly on the oft-overlooked broadcaster. But PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger said that the sudden publicity gave them an "opportunity to talk about who we are and what we are." "We're educators," Kerger said. "Most of what we try to do on a sustained basis is in the spirit of education." The funding Romney was talking about, she said, is so infinitesimally small -- only 15% of PBS' funding comes from the government -- that it was "strange" Romney would discuss it.