NPR, PBS on chopping block backed by Boulder City Council
Mar 8th
Republican congress is after public broadcasting again. Though you might think the Boulder City Government would want pulic broadcasting, they voted against it repeated over the past 10 years. Your local channel 54 was shut down in 2007 by Shaun McGrath, Macon Cowles, and that bunch.
According to Cowles ” I have no interest in ever having public broadcasting back in Boulder.” That gang at city hall then took all of our dedicated funds to public broadcasting , stole it, miss-used it and put in censorship everywhere.
Tell Congress: Don’t pull the plug on NPR and PBS!
We’re only a few weeks into the 112th Congress, and Republicans are already attempting to pull the plug on public media.
In a budget proposal made public last week, House Republicans announced plans to zero out all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the nonprofit responsible for funding public media including NPR, PBS, Pacifica and more.
If the Republicans are successful, it would be a tremendous blow to the entire public interest media sector.
We cannot allow Republicans to destroy public media.
Tell Congress: Fully fund NPR and defend public service media!
Republicans are disingenuously claiming that they need to cut funding for public media because of budgetary constraints. But what they fail to highlight is that national public broadcasting is remarkably cost effective, providing local news and information, free of charge, for millions of viewers while only receiving about .0001% of the federal budget.1
More to the point, it’s nearly impossible to put a price tag on the actual value of public broadcasting.
Public media is one of the last bulwarks against the corporate media, where the combination of consolidation and profit motive has long since shifted the focus to infotainment rather than substantive news. In many rural and less affluent communities, broadcasters rely on federal funding to provide the only available high-quality news and public affairs programming.
Without public media, corporate media monopolies would increase their already large control of what we see on television, hear on the radio or read in the newspaper.
This outcome should deeply worry all of us. The increased accumulation and consolidation of corporate power is a threat to our democracy. And nowhere is this more evident than in our media.
At a time when media consolidation is shrinking the number of perspectives we have access to over the airwaves and when newsrooms are shrinking, we need more diversity in our media not less. And we simply cannot afford to lose what public media brings to the table.
Tell Congress: Fully fund NPR and defend public service media!
Conservatives have longed for any opportunity to defund NPR, PBS and other public media. And with Speaker Boehner wielding the gavel, it looks like they may finally get their wish.
Don’t let Congress pull the plug on NPR and PBS! Tell them reject cuts to public broadcasting.
Boulder police release new information on fatal hit-and-run accident
Mar 7th
Boulder police have interviewed a number of witnesses to Saturday’s fatal hit-and-run accident near the intersection of Broadway and Baseline. Based on these interviews, investigators have new information on both the accident and the victim.
The accident happened in the northbound merge lane of Broadway, just north of Baseline, at about 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 5, 2011.
The Boulder County Coroner has identified the victim as Ronald L. Keithline (date of birth 01/31/1957). Keithline has had a number of interactions with Boulder police and has been known to lie in roadways in the past.
Witnesses who witnessed the collision say that, just prior to the accident, a red SUV stopped suddenly and swerved onto the sidewalk to go around something in the road. About 30 seconds later, they say they saw a dark-colored SUV hit Keithline. According to these witnesses, the SUV stopped for a moment, and then fled the scene.
Police are looking for a dark-colored Toyota Rav4 or Nissan Xterra-type vehicle.
Anyone with information about the accident is asked to call the Boulder Police Department’s Traffic Supervisor at 303-441-3333.
Boedecker theater at Boulder Dairy wrought with controversy and fraud
Mar 6th
SUNDAY EDITORIAL: by Jann Scott
Did George Boedecker know that he funded a theater that is wrought with controversy?? Maybe not.
“The Dairy Center for the Arts includes a brand new state-of-the-art cinema. The 60-seat art theater features independent film and broadcasts of live opera and other performing arts. Plush and spacious seats in The Boe will offer high-quality cinema viewing with access to traditional movie theater refreshments, snacks, beer and wine. The theater will also accommodate live performances and programs.” dairy center
What makes it controversial is that the theater wing was originally built with Comcast franchise fees to house public access TV for all Boulder citizens to come in and make their own video and film productions for free. $225,000 worth of 1995 dollars. Then $300,000 dollars was alloted annually by Comcast for the operation of the facility for the length of the franchise agreement. The wing was not supposed to be privatized and taken over by the city to be turned into a snooty elite international film series venue.The people of Boulder have been ripped offed, raped and duped by the Daily Center and the Boulder City council. Boedecker and his financial buddy Richard Polke made millions in their initial investment into Crocks. Now they have formed an unholy alliance to build this theater. Polke who is president of the of the dair
from Westwordy hated Public Access TV as did his girl friend Sue Deans former editor of the Daily Camera. The two of them tried to control free speech at public access TV for years and when they couldn’t do that the killed it and then put in their very own private movie theater that few people will use .In addition Boulder already has an arts cinema on campus. Maybe you have heard of it. International Film series. So now we have two at the tax payers expense and we have no public access TV which was paid for by Comcast. This is more proof that the city and the rich elite who run our local government absolutley “Hate Free Speech””It was a gleam in our eye just eighteen months ago,” Harris says of the new theater, which was funded largely by donations, including a major one by the Boedecker Foundation. Fitted with hi-tech projection and audio systems (in order to compete, Harris notes, with the high quality home video equipment now available), the venue is programmed largely by sentient committee rather than by a single curator. “They’ree all local cinephiles — the people who live and breathe movies,” Harris says. And the Boedecker also boasts a liquor license, which allows moviegoers the opportunity to buy wine and beer at the concession stand. What more could you want?” Westword
“Construction of the cinema, housed in the wing that formerly housed a public television studio at the Dairy, began last fall. But the idea to bring an art-house cinema with state-of-the-art technology to Boulder was hatched in 2009.” daily camera
