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An agency that is federally funded through 1 layer of intermediaries is still, in the most practical sense, federally funded.
by wyager 4y ago
An agency that is federally funded through 1 layer of intermediaries is still, in the most practical sense, federally funded.
- ceejayoz 4y agoAs the article indicates, those stations receive an average of 8% from CPB, and 5% from Federal/state/local government. The other 87% comes from elsewhere - 43% of it as individual donations. If they're "government funded" as a result, slap the label on Walmart and McDonalds. They can't operate without Federal funding, either. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/walmart-and-mcdonalds-among-top-employers-of-medicaid-and-food-stamp-beneficiaries.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/walmart-and-mcdonalds-among-...
- rahimnathwani 4y agoAre you suggesting that Walmart and McDonald's receive more in government subsidies than they pay in taxes?
- ceejayoz 4y agoI'm suggest Walmart similarly benefits from indirect Federal funding of their business, in the form of wages/benefits they don't have to give out to their employees receiving public assistance to be able to live.
- burkaman 4y agoYes, probably. Not only does Walmart receive significant wage and benefit subsidies for its employees, but they also receive income from customers using food stamps. In 2014 that food stamp spending was estimated to be $13 billion, far more than they pay in taxes. - https://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/04/big_box_stores_make_billions_off_food_stamps_often_it_s_their_own_workers.html https://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/04/big...
- anderber 4y agoBy this logic there would so many companies that are "federally funded" that the label itself would become irrelevant.
- floatrock 4y agoIncluding SpaceX. Starlink is a cute and a useful consumer product, but most of their balance sheet is defense money or giving rides to nasa.
- vicktour 4y agoYou could chuck most of Musk's portfolio into that category TBH. What ever company does that dumb tunnel idea and Tesla are the two additional companies that come to mind.
- mcguire 4y agoDoes the federal government assert editorial control over NPR?
- wyager 4y agoIt doesn't matter in the slightest if they do this explicitly. NPR would be stupid to bite the hand that feeds it.
- ceejayoz 4y agoNPR gets 1% of funding directly from the government. 13% of the 31% (4%) they get from member stations comes from the government, for a total of 5%. The "hand that feeds" NPR is mostly corporate sponsors and member stations' listeners.
- lamontcg 4y ago39% of NPR revenue comes directly from corporations. Another 12% comes from foundations (the wealthy donor class). Only 31% of their revenue comes from member stations and only 13% of that comes from CPB or government sources, which totals up to 4% coming from the government. So corporate interests fund NPR more than 10x times as much as the government.
- wyager 4y agoThen why did NPR have a ton of content on their website about how absolutely critical federal funding was to their operation?
- lamontcg 4y agoBecause they don't want liberals thinking too hard about how much Archer Daniels Midland pays them. And threats to their federal funding are also probably great for their pledge drives.
- ceejayoz 4y agoScroll up the thread; your question is already answered. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35542645 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35542645 Federal funding isn't critical to NPR, but it's important to the public radio ecosystem of small local stations, who get ~13% of their funding from government.
- kube-system 4y agoDoes that include Fox News when the Ad Council buys ads? Or when cable companies accept infrastructure subsidies?
- roflyear 4y agoThat would make probably almost all businesses in the US federally funded, as the US government is the single largest employer of people, and those people spend their money at private businesses. The US government purchases things from private businesses. Come on.