I dunno, Doug. CPB doesn't receive a lot of its funding from Congress -- not really enough to make it a "tax payer supported institution."

Who pays for public broadcasting?

    * In FY2002, public broadcasting's revenue was $2.3 billion.

    * The biggest single source of revenue - 26 percent - was membership. Subscription contributions to local stations and "Friends of…." groups provide critical support for public broadcasting.

    * The Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives an appropriation from the federal government. By law, 95 percent of this money goes to support local television and radio stations, programming, and improvements to the public broadcasting system as a whole.

    * Businesses and foundations contribute 22.8 percent of public broadcasting's revenues. Colleges and universities - both public and private - account for 10.6 percent.

Membership $593,525,000 26.0%
Business $376,182,000 16.4%
CPB Appropriation $350,000,000 15.3%
State Governments $322,460,000 14.1%
State Colleges         $186,062,000 8.1%
Foundations         $147,130,000 6.4%
Miscellaneous         $125,296,000 5.5%
Federal Grants and Contracts $59,454,000 2.6%
Local Governments $58,232,000 2.5%
Private Colleges $33,404,000 1.5%
Other Public Colleges         $22,993,000 1.0%
Auction $12,367,000 0.5%

Total          $2,287,105,000 100.0%

It's all on the CPB website.