SUBJECT: Rural Bias, CPB? COMMENT: It's great to see that rural public media stations received $75 million via CPB through the CARES Act to stay alive during the coronavirus crisis, but it's hard not to think of "rural" as code for "white" in this context. If the CPB ombudsperson were to closely examine the people benefiting from this windfall, what would they look like?
Received:
Virginia
Workbench Page Type:
Email:
Month and Year:
June, 2020
Comment:
Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with your comment regarding CPB funding. CPB received $75 million in funding through the CARES Act and distributed the entirety of this funding to public television and radio stations across the country. Every public media station received funding, with additional funding provided to small and rural stations, as stipulated by Congress in the CARES Act. Further, every public media station that serves a majority-minority audience or is licensed by an HBCU received the maximum level of funding distributed from the CARES Act. You can find a list of grantees and their funding from the CARES Act on the CPB website: https://www.cpb.org/files/aboutcpb/financials/funding/FY-2020-CARES-Act-Stabilization-Funding.pdf