White House opposes defunding public broadcasting

President Obama believes that funding national public broadcasting
is worthwhile, and he will request funding for it despite recent
controversies.

White House press secretary Jay Carney was forced to defend Obama’s
budget request for public broadcasting, which includes National Public
Radio (NPR), after the head of NPR was forced out Wednesday.

Vivian
Schiller, NPR’s president and CEO, resigned Wednesday after another
senior employee was caught on tape making derogatory comments about the
Republican Party and the Tea Party.

Republicans, many of whom have long sought to defund NPR, have
seized on the latest scandal, pledging to eliminate taxpayer dollars for
public broadcasting.

But Carney said Wednesday that the
president does “not support calls to eliminate funding for National
Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as is
evidenced by our budget.”

“We think they are worthwhile and important priorities, as our budget makes clear,” Carney said.

Carney
declined repeatedly to say while public broadcasting should be
federally funded except to note that Republican administrations have
budgeted for NPR in the past.

“I don’t think people here want to get into the history of public
broadcasting and public radian and why successive administrations of
both parties have felt that it’s worthwhile, but suffice it to say that
we do,” Carney said.