Seven Democratic House members were joined by the PBS Kids character Arthur in a press conference in the breezy sunshine outside the Capitol in Washington today (Feb. 16). Rep. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.) said this latest threat to public broadcasting funding is different from former battles in the mid-’90s and six years ago (Current, June 27, 2005). “Back then, there was a strong, moderate, thoughtful Republican base of support,” he said. “Now there is a partisan undercurrent that is unsettling.” Rep. Ed Markey (Mass.) said because of the importance of local pubstations to their constituents, “there is a razor-sharp edge to this issue back home.”

In the last four days, three progressive organizations have collected more than 1 million signatures opposing the GOP plan to defund public broadcasting. The move to zero out federal support of CPB “is clearly political, not budgetary,” said Timothy Karr, campaign director at Free Press. “Every time the GOP is in power, they offer a new measure to kill public broadcasting. But there’s something they don’t take into consideration—the American people love public broadcasting.” Other groups collecting signatures are are MoveOn.org and CREDO Action. 

If you’re looking for a pitch for public media, marketer Izzy Smith points to an entrancing moment of political theater posted on Public Radio Exchange. Producer Roman Mars retells the story of Fred Rogers’ moment in a 1969 Senate hearing, playing opposite longtime Rhode Island Sen. John Pastore. “It’s like Capra, isn’t it?” Mars comments, but to his credit Mars points out that Pastore was an ally of President Johnson in supporting the fledgling thing called public broadcasting. YouTube has the video, with a young Fred Rogers at the witness table.

It’s unlikely that the House GOP’s push to defund public broadcasting will succeed, according to former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, a potential candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Santorum is a veteran of earlier congressional battles to eliminate the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s federal appropriation. In an interview on Fox News yesterday, he recalled how it played out: the “Barney contingent came out and the Sesame Street contingent came out, and these are programs that are popular among families and so they hit you pretty hard.” HuffPo and GOP12, a blog covering the 2012 field of Republicans running for president, have video clips.

MoveOn.org, the outspoken advocacy group at the forefront of all things progressive, has turned its home page into a petition opposing proposed funding cuts to public broadasting, and e-mailed its members to sign it. And pubcasting execs appreciate that effort, right? Well . . . Several who spoke with Adweek “wish MoveOn would have stayed quiet,” the advertising mag reports. They’re concerned that the group’s support “will help opponents paint public broadcasting as a tool of the left wing, rather than a thoughtful, educational and often high-brow approach to news and culture.” Adweek quoted one exec as saying of the MoveOn.org

You Twitter? You a public broadcasting fan? This Twibbon’s for you.

Six House Democrats are planning a press conference for 11:15 a.m. Eastern Wednesday (Feb. 16) to announce their efforts to oppose cuts proposed for CPB in H.R.1, the Continuing Resolution under debate this week. Reps. Ed Markey (Mass.), Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Nita Lowey (Iowa), Sam Farr (Calif.) and Paul Tonko and Bill Owens (both N.Y.) “will be joined by a character from one of America’s favorite public television shows” on the House side of the east front of the Capitol. Could it be . . . the “Big Bird defense”? Fifteen years ago the tactic rescued CPB funding by a 2-to-1 House majority during Newt Gingrich’s reign as House speaker.

Politics Daily senior correspondent Jill Lawrence really likes PBS and NPR. But she wants them defunded. “It’s time to end [pubcasting’s] role as a political football and a symbol of what government shouldn’t be doing,” she writes. “It’s time to find another way to help public broadcasting thrive.” One idea: Sell PBS programming to cable and satellite companies. Lawrence quotes David Schutz, a veteran broadcast financial and marketing analyst, who said PBS has never looked for “retransmission revenue” from subscription television providers. “Maybe it’s time for them to re-evaluate that relationship,” he said. Schutz estimates that could bring in from $85 million to $300 million a year for PBS and member stations.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to “examine certain editorial and employment standards and practices at NPR,” Broadcasting & Cable is reporting. The committee’s oversight plan, obtained by B&C, cites “recent controversies involving NPR,” no doubt meaning the fallout from the firing of correspondent Juan Williams (Current, Nov. 1, 2010).

PBS documentarian Ken Burns issued a statement on public broadcasting today, as debate nears in the House of Representatives on the future of CPB funding. It said in part that discussions over public media support “is always described as a left-right divide. But myriad services in public broadcasting are enjoyed in every state of the union regardless of political persuasion. Public television is particularly a crucial link in ongoing adult education, something we desperately need as we retrain those without jobs.” He cited pubcasting’s role in providing “in-depth and independent media, along with news, cultural and educational programming,” and said it delivers those services “in a nonpartisan, fair, and, most importantly, in-depth fashion.

The Association of Public Television Stations and NPR are consolidating their lobbying efforts to broaden APTS’ advocacy work to include public radio. The Public Media Association will be governed by a legislative council of four pubradio leaders named by the NPR board of directors and four public TV leaders selected by the APTS Action board, along with NPR President Vivian Schiller and APTS President Pat Butler. He will oversee the effort. Mike Riksen, NPR’s vice president for policy and representation, will report directly to Butler on government funding issues. Schiller initiated the discussions with APTS several months ago about aligning their advocacy functions.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), took to the House floor this morning (Feb. 15) to once again speak in favor of public broadcasting on the day that lawmakers will debate the Appropriation bill that zeros out CPB funding. “I fear this reckless partisan assault on public broadcasting will actually hurt our longterm efforts to tame the deficient,” he said. “It would mean the loss of a valuable tool to educate and inform the public through a respected and nonpartisan source. This is exactly how to get information to the public on how to deal with the massive deficit problems that we face.”

Public radio’s This American Life is having website server problems today (try here, it may be up again when you read this). Why? Most probably because it has posted the secret formula for Coca-Cola, which supposedly had not been made public since its first bottling in 1886. Leave it to TAL to unearth a 1979 story on page 28 of the Atlanta Journal Constitution showing a photo of the formula, handwritten by its creator John Pemberton. TAL consulted historian Mark Pendergrast, author of a history of the drink, who (somewhat noncommittally) said: “I think that it certainly is a version of the formula.”

Memos to public radio stations’ Authorized Representatives (AReps) from NPR and APTS about the Public Media Alliance, a new combined TV and radio lobbying effort, Feb. 15, 2011 From NPR’s chair and president To: AREPS Fr: Dave Edwards, NPR Board Chair Vivian Schiller , NPR President & CEO As you well know in light of this weekend’s news from the House Appropriations Committee, the elimination of federal funding for public broadcasting is a serious threat to the future of over 900 locally run radio stations and 360 television stations — and to the entire public broadcasting economy. To succeed in the face of this challenge we need to make our case forcefully, and use our limited resources wisely.

The Federal Communications Commission has sent invitations to webinars on spectrum auction to 15 state broadcast associations, reports the CommLaw Blog. The notice says that FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and Rebecca Hanson, senior adviser on broadcast spectrum, will describe “the financial opportunities offered by voluntary incentive auctions, as proposed in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan.” They’ll also discuss “new business model options” that stem from voluntary spectrum givebacks. The Virginia Broadcasting Association announced stations there may take part March 17. No other details are available, the blog noted.