President Barack Obama released his budget today, and support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is safe through fiscal 2014. In fact, funding actually increases from $430 million in FY11 to $445 million in 2012, points out MinnPost media reporter David Brauer. The president does propose cutting $80 million in CPB grants for digital transition, station interconnection infrastructure and station fiscal stabilization, which the system received during the recession (Current, Dec. 14, 2009). Want to check out the CPB section of the president’s budget? Click here (PDF) and search on “Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” or go to the bottom of page 1203.

How real is the threat by Republicans in Congress to defund public broadcasting, and what difference would an end to federal aid make for Minnesota Public Radio? David Brauer, media writer for MinnPost, assessed the impact of the proposed cuts and the odds that they’ll garner support among Senate Democrats after MPR began telling its listeners about the looming House vote. Washington University Professor Steven Smith says pubcasting’s allies in the Senate and the White House will only be able to do so much to protect public broadcasting: “Senate Democrats will not go for cuts as deep as the House, but it is possible that CPB will take a significant hit as a part of the ultimate deal,” Smith says.

Nightly Business Report is “strongly pursing” a national radio deal, and is hoping to open up to multiple bureau partnerships with pubcasting stations by the end of the year, NBR owner Mykalai Kontilai tells the News on News website. The radio program would be a half-hour audiocast of the weeknight NBR, with an addition 30 minutes of NBR-produced content. “It would involve both of our hosts or some other radio talent,” Kontilai said. NBR also has seven proposals out to pubTV stations for bureau partnerships. “We’ve received some positive feedback,” he said. “I would hope by the end of the year, we’d have three to five new bureaus opened, one in the Rocky Mountain region, one in the Southwest, one in Southern California, one in Washington, D.C.

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement yesterday (Feb. 12) on GOP budget cuts that by “putting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Pell Grants on the chopping block, Republicans are denying our youngest children and our neediest students the excellence of educational, cultural and informational resources and opportunities both in their homes and in classrooms throughout the nation.” He also said that the reductions were made “to appease demands of its extremist Tea Party caucus.” The House begins debate Tuesday on a Continuing Resolution to keep the government running that includes a proposal to zero out CPB funding by fiscal 2013.

Debate has been set to start Tuesday (Feb. 15) on H.R. 1, the Continuing Resolution (CR) that would keep the federal government running but also would slash the budget, including ending CPB funding as of fiscal 2013. The resolution also proposes eliminating FY 2011 money for the CPB Digital program, Ready to Learn, the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, the Rural Utility Service’s digital work, and Radio Interconnection. “These draconian cuts will deal a devastating blow to local public television and radio stations if enacted,” APTS President Patrick Butler cautioned in an e-mail to stations today (Feb. 12). Amendments are expected to be put forward to save the pubcasting dollars.

Public broadcasting’s so-called “G4” – CPB, PBS, the Association of Public Television Stations advocacy organization and NPR – today (Feb. 12) issued comments on the formal proposal Friday by the House Appropriations Committee to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting as part of cuts in the Continuing Resolution to keep the government running. The statement from CPB: “Federal funding for public media is a smart and careful investment that continues to deliver proven benefits to the American people at both a local and national level. It is a successful example of a vital public-private partnership,” said Pat Harrison, president and CEO of CPB.

Virginia legislators have lots to talk about before agreeing on a budget, and that includes public broadcasting. The Senate restored $2.7 million that Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) proposed cutting from public broadcasting, while the House defeated a proposal to restore even a portion of the funding, according to the Roanoke Times.

In 2005, WTTW’s proposed preschool literacy show Word World was a surprise recipient of more than $7 million in Ready to Learn funding from the U.S. Department of Education. The perky program premiered on PBS in 2007, and went on to win three Emmy Awards. On Thursday (Feb. 10), Word World LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Reuters is reporting the company has liabilities of more than $10 million, including a $3.3 million convertible note and unpaid debts to animation and production studios. It has secured lines of credit allowing it to continue operations while it restructures. “It’s the classic story of a great company with a bad balance sheet that ran out of time,” said Don Moody, c.e.o.

Twenty members of the House of Representatives on Thursday (Feb. 10) urged their colleagues to sign a letter of support for public broadcasting funding (PDF). The letter reads in part: “We can all agree that we should right-size government spending, but we must do it in a way that doesn’t deprive citizens across the country of a fundamental way to be educated, informed and inspired. We cannot turn our backs on one of America’s most successful public-private partnerships, an indispensable service that delivers exceptional value to citizens in small towns and major cities. It is an appropriate role for our government and one that we hope you will support.”

The progressive website MoveOn.org has a petition on its site supporting public broadcasting as the debate on federal funding nears. From the page: “The Republicans just released their budget proposal, and it zeroes out funding for both NPR and PBS – the worst proposal in more than a decade. We need to tell Republicans that cutting off funding was unacceptable last time they were in charge, and it’s unacceptable now.” Signers’ information is zapped directly to their Congressional reps with the message, “Congress must protect NPR and PBS and guarantee them permanent funding, free from political meddling.”

The Berkman Center’s Online Media Legal Network will collaborate with the Investigative News Network (INN) to help its member nonprofit news organizations find pro bono and low-cost legal help. Based at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet Society, Online Media Legal Network is a legal assistance and referral service of more than 100 law firms, law school clinics, in-house counsel and 7,000 individual lawyers nationwide that provide free and reduced-fee legal assistance to qualifying independent journalists and journalism ventures. The INN was conceived at the 2009 investigative public media conference in Pocantico, N.Y. Its members include some of the top pubmedia news orgs, including California Watch, Center for Investigative Reporting and the Center for Public Integrity.

Robert F. Schenkkan, who worked with President Lyndon Johnson on the 1967 act that established CPB and was one of “the Six Pack” of early pubTV station managers who provided counsel on the membership design of the Public Broadcasting Service, died Wednesday (Feb. 9) in Austin, Texas, of complications of dementia. He was 93. Top public broadcasters were quick to pay their respects. Jim Lehrer, anchor and editor of PBS NewsHour, told the Austin American-Statesman, “He was the first to understand the immediate meaning and ultimate importance of public broadcasting. He really got it. It was ‘educational’ TV when he started, and he realized it could be so much more.

Spaces are quickly filling for the “Advocacy Journalism in the Digital Age” conference March 1 at the Newseum. The Ford Foundation and the American University School of Communication are gathering experts in social activism, public policy and journalism to help define the opportunities and challenges created by new digital technologies. Panelists include Clark Hoyt of Bloomberg News, NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard, and Nick Clooney, director of “Journey to Darfur,” tracing his trek to the war-torn country with his son, actor George Clooney. RSVP here.

Karen Avery, former director of foundation relations at the Smithsonian, is the new senior director of institutional giving at the PBS Foundation, working to raise funds from foundation and corporate sectors. She will report to Brian Reddington, senior v.p. of development, who was recently shifted from oversight of the Online Giving Campaign to focus solely on foundation work. Prior to Avery’s Smithsonian development work, she was assistant dean of Harvard College where she directed an initiative to raise the awareness of women’s issues at Harvard, and served as a hearing officer for complaints of sexual assault and sexual harassment.

President Obama will unveil his Wireless Innovation and Infrastructure Initiative in a speech today (Feb. 9) at Northern Michigan University at Marquette, reports National Journal.  The speech backs the idea of a voluntary spectrum giveback that could net the government a total of $27.8 billion over the next 10 years, $9.6 billion of which would go to deficit reductions, White House officials said. Those figures are estimates of what the government would have after giving broadcasters and others who relinquish spectrum a share in auction proceeds, and paying the costs of relocating or consolidating spectrum users into different bands.