A Tale of Two Emails

Concerned about Public Broadcasting losing funding, I wrote email messages to the two Senators from Kansas, the state in which I live. Besides a little demographic information about myself, I sent a plea for continued funding for public broadcasting.

Besides my email address, my messages which were not the same but were similar, included my home address and my full name.

One message went to SENATOR JERRY MORAN. Here's the message I got back, with my email attached.

You are receiving this email in response to a message delivered to Senator Jerry Moran using your email address. Due to the frequency of email addresses being used by lobbying organizations without the knowledge of Kansans, Senator Moran only accepts emails that are sent through his Web site. This helps to verify that you intended for this message to be sent. If you would like Senator Moran to hear your thoughts, please use this link to copy and paste your message into the email webform to ensure its authenticity.

http://www.moran.senate.gov

If you did not send Senator Jerry Moran this email, please ignore this message. It is because Senator Moran values the opinions of Kansans that he would like to make certain that it is their thoughts he is taking into consideration, not Washington D.C. lobbyists.

I didn't read this message promptly, but when I did, I copied my message and pasted it into the form.

And what came back? The very same message as before. Apparently that webform isn't safe from lobbyists either. What's a tax payer to do? It's pretty clear Senator Jerry Moran has no interest in what I have to say.

My other message went to SENATOR PAT ROBERTS.

Here's the message that came back to me:

Dear (My Name):

Thank you for writing regarding federal funding for public broadcasting. I appreciate your taking the time to get in touch.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is a non-profit agency created by Congress to promote educational and cultural programming through the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR). Although CPB receives virtually all of its funding from the federal government, only about 15 percent of PBS and 2 percent of NPR funding comes from the federal disbursements administered by CPB. The vast majority of funding for public broadcasting comes from private individuals, businesses, foundations, and local organizations.

CPB is funded two years in advance, so appropriations for 2011 and 2012 have already been approved. For 2011 CPB will receive $430 million, and for 2012 it will receive $445 million. Please be assured, I will keep your thoughts in mind as I take a hard look at funding for CPB as the appropriations process moves forward.

Again thank you for taking the time to contact me. If you would like more information on issues before the Senate, please visit my website at http://roberts.senate.gov. You may also sign up on my home page for a monthly electronic newsletter that will provide additional updates on my work for Kansas.

With every best wish,

Sincerely,
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Pat Roberts

PR:sf

I say: Thanks, Senator Roberts.

If you support PBS and NPR, send a note to your senators and see what they have to say.