SciFri on the chopping block?


I will suspend my contempt for the HuffPo for one brief moment to link to an important message: Science Friday is being starved to death. Here’s what Ira Flatow says:

We at SciFri are facing severe financial difficulties, i.e. raising money. NSF [National Science Foundation] has turned us down for continuing funding, saying they love what we do, we are sorely needed, but it’s not their job to fund us. At the same time, NPR has said the same thing, telling us that if we want to stay on the air, etc, we now have to raise all our own money. Despite what listeners may think, NPR only gives us about 10 percent of our funding.

Oh, man. This month I’m hitting you up to contribute to DonorsChoose, and now I have to suggest that you might also donate to Science Friday. It’s as if our culture is busily throwing away our science education infrastructure, and it’s all being thrown on the backs of a few. A few elites, of course, but still…