Here’s the Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby expanding on a topic I touched on the other day:
But despite the argument made by some Republicans, the reason to defund ''public" television is not its liberal political bias. It is that it has no legitimate claim on taxpayer dollars. Maybe it did back when public broadcasting was a lone oasis in a vast wasteland of mediocrity, but that is no longer the case. Thanks to cable, satellites, and the Internet, viewers now have access to an incredible array of offerings, much of it of very high quality. From ESPN to A&E to the Learning Channel, today's private broadcasters more than fill the need it was once said only public broadcasting could meet. They manage without a federal handout. Big Bird can, too.Several of the cable stations for children also run without commercials (during the show) indicating that a channel can stay profitable with other sources of income such as licensing and merchandising.
Extra – David Broder notes that the $100 million restored to PBS came out of funding for health education: “The victory that public television won last week when the House restored the committee-mandated 25 percent cut in its funds came at a price. That price will be paid, as is so often the case in today's Washington, by the people who depend on government help for essential health care and education and job-training services.”
2 comments:
like peggy noonan, i'm in disagreement about the cable fare and pbs. i approve the funding for pbs. i do think that they should drop their political and biased shows, but my family has benefited and enjoyed the arts and CLEAN family programming. cable does not feature much in the way of concerts, ballet, opera, broadway, history, or delightful series such as mystery, masterpiece theatre, dna, 2000 acres of sky, moarch of the glen, or the kooky red green. . . there are many excellent local programs produced, too. if not for pbs, this resident of a fly-over state would not get to experience yo yo mah, the metropolitan opera, or the new york symphony/boston pops. . . taxpayer dollars contribute to the national endowment of the arts. i have no problem with those dollars supporting the arts and the excellent programming and storytelling on pbs.
The PBS "issue" is in the same class as the flag burning "issue." It's purpose is to pump up the base. Cable is still a vast wasteland of mediocrity, screaming head commentary and mile-a-minute production styles.
Without PBS America would not have been exposed to William F. Buckley or Monty Python. Those two things are enough to earn them a lifetime pass.
Let them continue producing the good stuff that you can't get elsewhere. There is a heckuva lot more money wasted on shamelessly pork-laden legislation.
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