timekiller_s#PublicMedia #SaveOETA #Oklahoma #LongPost
A Letter to Everybody from Oklahoma, Where the Wind Sweeping Down the Plain is Toxic:
Emergency broadcasting--and the means to reach rural communities--is one of the reasons many Oklahomans are bitterly pissed at Gov. Kevin Stitt for vetoing a comfortably-passed, bipartisan-supported State Senate bill that would have renewed the charter for OETA.
OETA (Oklahoma Educational Television Authority) is a network aligned with PBS that also has an infrastructure for emergency communications: The PBS WARN system, which uses cellular networks -- crucial for disseminating emergency info to those rural areas that are underserved by cable and/or broadband internet access.
It is one of--if not THE--most-watched PBS affiliate in the country, and has been a good steward of state taxpayer money. OETA is a public/private partnership, in which state monies go toward operations and infrastructure, and maintaining the WARN system. In the Fall 2022 special #okleg session, Stitt also vetoed an $8.19 mn appropriation that came from American Rescue Plan monies that would have been used for upgrades to the WARN system. That should have been a warning bell, perhaps.
OETA is a public/private partnership. And, like all PBS (and NPR) affiliates, only receives a small percentage of its budget from taxpayer monies. It relies largely on the donations of viewers and corporations who believe in OETA's mission from the beginning--in 1956, predating PBS by about 13 years.
Stitt's reasoning for defunding OETA--which will go off the air within 12 months from July 1 if there's no veto override--is basically because he's a homophobic bigot who thinks PBS is too "woke" and spends too much time "elevating" the 2SLGBTQI+ community.
I say "within 12 months" because a state law that governs ceasing operations can keep OETA on the air while it goes thru shutdown prep and also makes provisions for fiscal and material assets once OETA is terminated.
Several years ago, at another time when OETA's charter was due for renewal (every three years), conservative GOP culture-warrior state solons mounted an unsuccessful attempt to terminate OETA. It was met with broad derision from both #okleg Democrats and Republicans alike, and soundly defeated.
But, in the intervening years, we've had that whole Trump thing and all that it entails--including the election in 2018 of Stitt, who had been the founder of iffy Gateway Mortgage, and someone who proudly blabs about his support for Trump at every turn. Stitt wears his White Christian Nationalist social conservative bona fides as if they're patches on one of those suits that NASCAR drivers wear. He even opened his second term in the governor's office a few months ago by declaring Oklahoma, basically, a "Christian" state, claiming "every square inch of Oklahoma" for Jesus. Really constitutionally inappropriate, if not nauseating to Oklahomans who align with other faiths or none.
In the 2018 gubernatorial primaries, Kevin Stitt prevailed--shockingly to some--over Mick Cornett, a relatively moderate Republican who had also been a popular Mayor of Oklahoma City. I vaguely remember it was rural/small town voters who pushed Stitt over the top, as well as Trump supporters in the bigger population centers (OKC/Tulsa). Basically, they thought Cornett to be not MAGA enough to represent their interests. Boy, when Republicans kill their own ...
Oh what a different place we would be in socially had Cornett prevailed. And I remind -- these are still Republicans here. It's just that Cornett -- and current OKC Mayor David Holt -- are what would now be considered Diet Republicans. Cornett and Holt have all the usual Republican baggage (pro-business, pro-cop, pro-whatever) without the odious and dangerous addition of pro-Trump, fascist White Christian Nationalist extremism that seeks to punish women, 2SLGBTQI+, public education, libraries, and so forth.
It sucks here so badly.
Please, please vote--especially if you're sick of the culture wars, book banning, vote if you love your 2SLGBTQI+ friends and relations, vote if you give a damn about education.
James M Branum - יעקב מתתיהו ☮
ShaunKL