“Today’s Senate subcommittee hearing takes up the question of how much money to give CPB, an agency set up in the 1960s to funnel federal dollars to public TV and radio stations and theoretically act as a shield between politics and programming. Last month, a House subcommittee tried to strip $100 million from the 2006 budget and revoke its entire $400 million grant by 2008. The full House restored the cuts after howls of protest from supporters who brought Clifford the Big Red Dog and other beloved characters from PBS kids’ shows to the Capitol.”