In what would seem to be a warning sign concerning the world’s shifting attitude toward American culture, the U.N. has passed a resolution that would allow countries to subsidise their film industries and restrict the release of foreign cultural work on their markets.
A Franco-Canadian initiative, which has won broad backing as a swipe at US “cultural imperialism”, could mean that countries will be able to subsidise domestic film industries and restrict foreign music and content on their radio and television stations in the name of preserving and promoting cultural diversity.
A commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation late on Monday voted overwhelmingly in favour of the text and the body’s general assembly, meeting in Paris, is expected to follow suit tomorrow.
The US, supported only by Israel, filed 27 amendments in an unsuccessful bid to water down the resolution, criticising it as “flawed”, “ambiguous” and “protectionist”. France, which has long defended its right to a “cultural exception”, could barely conceal its delight. “We are no longer the black sheep on this issue,” said the culture minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, adding that the text was “a clear recognition” that cultural goods such as film, TV programmes and music are not “merchandise like any other” and should be treated separately in world trade talks.
Said the RIAA and MPAA, “Crap.”
The international market for U.S. cultural products has become increasingly significant, many times making the difference in whether a studio takes a bath on a film or winds up turning a respectable profit (__Waterworld__ springs to mind). Of course, such profit protection comes at the expense of international cultural exchange, with the vast majority of the world winding up culturally colonized by the corporate entities that make up the American entertainment industry. On an international scale, it’s hard to name five major entertainment industries outside of the United States that produce material with an eye toward exporting to foreign markets. I have India, Hong Kong, Japan, and – apparently – Nigeria (hold your e-mail scam jokes until the end, please). Are there any that I’ve missed? Anyone? Canada? Are you raising your hand?
Of course, while other countries are looking at subsidising their cultural industries, the United States Gummint is looking to tighten its belt. Sure, I’ve posted on this before, but this is a new entry. Let’s see if we can spot some of the major flaws here, shall we?
The Republican Study Committee, a conservative group within the House GOP caucus, has launched Operation Offset to cut spending by $102.1 billion in this year’s budget to help pay for rebuilding New Orleans and other devastated environs. Among the targets in the group’s bull’s-eye: The National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Officials estimate that the rebuilding effort will exceed $200 billion, and conservative lawmakers are uneasy about picking up that tab. It would add to a deficit that already had been projected to reach $314 billion.
“Congress must ensure that a catastrophe of nature does not become a catastrophe of debt for our children and grandchildren,” said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., the committee’s chairman.
Ahem.
First of all, I would like to point out that the projected deficit of $314 billion was a surplus but a scant five years ago before a series of ill-advised tax cuts and the start of an unpopular and expensive war that resulted in the awarding of billions of dollars in no-bid contracts to corporations whose former bigwigs now populate the current administration
Second, where was Mike Pence when the previously mentioned war started? Despite the administration’s every effort, they still have not managed to draw a connection between Iraq and the attacks on 9/11. And while they continue to argue that “we’re fighting them over there so we won’t have to fight them here,” they can’t erase the fact that Iraq has become a major terrorist staging ground in the days since Operation Iraqi Freedom began. Mike Pence is worried now about “a catastrophe of debt for our children and grandchildren,” but wasn’t that one of the arguments against going into Iraq? And wasn’t that one of the arguments against Bush’s tax cuts when he first proposed them? I am already part of a generation that will have to help pay down Bush’s debt – and I can barely afford to pay down my own. Not to mention the fact that the administration wants to make that even harder.
You can’t run up a massive debt over the protests of the people, hand plum contracts to your buddies, spend like there’s no tomorrow and cut your major source of funding, then cut services to the community and claim that you’re doing it so that our children and grandchildren won’t have to pay. That’s dishonest, hurtful, and just plain boorish.
If the Republican Study Group gets its way, part of the savings will come from eliminating federal funding for the arts and public television. According to Mr. Pence, that would save the Treasury $1.8 billion over 10 years—a down payment on the Katrina bill.
Note that the figure is the amount of money saved over 10 years. Which means that in order to make the figure seem like a lot to the American public. They had to multiply it by 10. Here’s a number I didn’t have to multiply. $202,022,264,598.00. That’s the cost of the war in Iraq as of 12:06 PM on October 19, 2005 (according to costofwar.com). And that’s a number that is steadily climbing. The “down payment” on the Katrina rebuilding effort that the Republican Study Group is pushing so hard would take ten years to make. Go down to your local car dealership and ask the dealer if you can make the down payment on your car over a period of ten years. Hell, ask if you can spread the down payment out over the course of one year. Tell me how hard they laugh. Rounding the suggested 10-year “down payment” up to an even $2 billion and assuming that the rebuilding effort somehow manages to come in at the ballpark figure of 200 billion, that’s still roughly 1,000 years for the “savings” to pay off that debt – which will still be just a small fraction of the total debt racked up by this administration.
Pray, continue.
Mr. Pence and the Republican Study Committee note that the CPB and the Public Broadcasting System “continue to use federal funding to pay for questionable programming, such as a documentary on sex education funded by the Playboy Foundation.” A lot of the programming, such as the popular children’s show Sesame Street, “could bring in enough annual revenues to cover the loss of federal funding.”
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., one of those urging steep budget cuts to pay for hurricane recovery, said the initiative must be accomplished without raising taxes or adding to the national debt, which recently surpassed the $8 trillion mark.
First, where is the model under which Sesame Street could bring in the revenues required to replace 1.8 billion over ten years? Wouldn’t that require Sesame Workshop to take the money that is currently going into the funding of new programs that they produce and instead funnel it into public broadcasting? Would the Republican Study Committee ever dare to suggest that Disney and Universal should be required to pay the upkeep on America’s cable systems?
Second, why is it not questionable for the tobacco industry to fund non-smoking initiatives (not to mention the Partnership for a Drug-Free America), but it’s questionable for Playboy to fund a documentary on sex education? Wouldn’t Playboy’s funding of sex education suggest a level of social responsibility that more corporations could stand to adopt?
And third, I love the fact that this initiative “must be accomplished without raising taxes or adding to the national debt.” Again – where was this reasoning when George W. Bush slashed taxes? And where was this thrift when the war in Iraq started?
“When the families of my district in western North Carolina have unforeseen expenses arise, they have to look for other, less-important items to cut from the family budget,” Mr. McHenry said. “Government needs to apply that same common sense. We must not allow the liberals in Congress to politicize this issue and use it as their latest excuse to raise taxes.”
I may not be in Congress, but I am a liberal. And proud of it. And I will politicize this issue. And I won’t use it as an excuse to raise taxes, because this is what taxes exist to do. An “excuse” implies that there is no good reason. Taxes are supposed to pay for the government to provide for its citizens, but the Republican Congress and the current administration have cut taxes to their wealthy friends and cut services to the average American while rewarding fat no-bid contracts to America’s privileged.
And I will not be attacked for politicizing an issue that is already political when the Republicans have politicized everything from medical marijuana to missing blonde teenagers to the status of a single brain-dead woman in Florida.
Mr. McHenry cited Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, who said Hurricane Katrina destroyed every school in four of his state’s counties.
“Eliminating the federal share of CPB funding would free up $400 million this year,” he said. “That is enough money to build 40 elementary schools.”
“Certainly, public television has its benefits, but we have to be responsible and choose our priorities,” he said. “What is more important, funding the Lehrer News Hour or building schools to educate our children?”
This is the closest McHenry – or anybody associated with this initiative – gets to making a valid point. Too bad that it’s a sideways attack dependent on pure emotional response that smacks of hypocrisy when coming from the conservative movement.
First of all, the “Lehrer News Hour” is part of an effort to continue education beyond the schools. Part of the reason we have public broadcasting in the first place is a recognition that education continues after one has been handed their diploma, and a recognition that free access to information is an important part of that continuing education. To suggest that public television stands in opposition to our educational system is to miss the fact that public television is a part of our educational system – not to mention neglecting the fact that public schools have been using public television since at least the 1980’s as a source of quality educational programming that can supplement classroom learning.
And second, the conservative movement has consistently attacked public education from all sides. They have called it worthless, suggested that it is a drain on our resources, have consistently sought to privatize it, have cut its funding, and have treated its teachers as second-class workers. Their sudden concern for the educational system is almost as sincere as their sudden thrift in terms of the budget.
The fact is that public broadcasting and funding of the arts and humanities has long been a thorn in the side of conservatives. This latest attack is not the result of a new-found conscience, nor is it a principled reaction to the disaster in New Orleans. It is a justification of the same old chestnut that Republicans pull out every time they feel they have the upper hand – that public broadcasting and the NEA are bad for ‘Merica and must be destroyed. If you want to look for excuses, look to the right. That’s where you’ll find the arguments that don’t make sense.