The president and CEO of National Public Radio has issued a dire prediction about the fate of public broadcasting, if budget cutting targets the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
"The elimination of federal funding would be a significant blow to nearly 900 public radio stations that serve the needs of more than 38 million Americans with free over-the-air programming they can’t find anywhere else," said Vivian Schiller in a statement issued at the end of last week.
Schiller's warning is part of a gathering campaign in defense of public broadcasting that's targeting social media. A web site -- www.170millionamericans.com -- is a linchpin of the campaign against Republican plans to drop federal funding for the CPB, which provides part of the money for both public radio and public television.
One thing that's not an effective tool in such a battle is "signing" an online petition.
MoveOn.org is running one such petition drive. Of course, it also gives MoveOn.org a bunch more email addresses to add to its list.
That aside, expect a lot of more serious attempts to rally public support to keep federal funding as one of the sources of money for both NPR and PBS, like this, from Ellis Bromberg, the general manager of Milwaukee Public TV:
Clay and the Grammys: There was plenty to see on Sunday night's Grammy telecast, including Lady Gaga arriving in an egg:
Here's the full list of Grammy winners.
For football fans around these parts, one of the highlights may have been Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews almost getting a word in as "Glee" star Lea Michele joined him to introduce Lady Antebellum.
Here's the video:
And, afterword, Matthews stopped by CBS' "Thank You Cam" for this:
On TV: CBS moved the debut of its new "Mad Love" up a week so it could premiere on Valentine's Day. The Jason Biggs-Tyler Labine comedy about friends living in New York City (sound familiar?) airs at 7:30 tonight on Channel 58.
- Oprah Winfrey hosts Roseanne Barr today, along with the rest of the cast of her old "Roseanne" at 4 p.m. on Channel 12.
- In case you haven't heard, Miley Cyrus will be hosting NBC's "Saturday Night Live" on March 5.
- And in case you forgot to watch it, Paula Abdul's "Live to Dance" wrapped up last week on CBS, with an audience of fewer than 5 million people who remembered to watch. Those numbers make it unlikely that "Live to Dance" will live to see another season.
Another Oscar indicator: It shouldn't be a surprise that "The King's Speech" swept Sunday's Orange British Academy Film Awards, which aired, sadly, opposite the Grammys on Sunday night.
A few years back, the in British awards-cast aired live Sunday afternoon on BBC America, but now is delayed for prime time in the US.
While a lot of smart money is on "The King's Speech" to pick up the best picture Oscar in two weeks, it's hard to see all the honors it got in London last night are anything but an indicator of British pride in a fine British historical drama -- which continues to play in area theaters.
Non-"King's Speech" winners included Natalie Portman for best actress in "The Black Swan" and director David Fincher for "The Social Network."
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
