Conservative zealots all over the country have been up in arms over PBS and NPR. Supposedly, they're too liberal. It escalated to the point where 100 million dollars in funding was withdrawn. Children's programming such as Sesame Street would just have been collateral damage, I guess. Well, the funding has been restored. I am throwing in my two bits now as opposed to before, when I would have just had my arguement thrown back in my face, its merit ignored.
So now, here goes
If you are the sort of person who cares enough to dedicate the time and effort needed to make public broadcasting possible, chances are you're a liberal. Conservatives involved with broadcasting would rather find homes at Fox News.
If you're the sort of person who pledges money to public broadcasting, chances are you're a liberal.
So a message to every neo-con who is whining about any alleged disparity in public broadcasting:
Do something to show that you care about public broadcasting apart from shouting about liberal views expressed in it, or fuck off.
Patrick, of course they are going to complain but now that they dumped the old president, who was a Republican but obviously ineffectual as far as they were concerned, and put another Republican in his place, one they feel will be more effective for them, they have decided to give the money back.
ReplyDelete. I love public television and I would hate to see them get their hands on it to be honest.
I can’t see that this would offend anyone but you never know.
There is a difference between being a conservative Catholic and being a neo-con. I know you, Dan. You're not a neo-con.
ReplyDeletewhen in doubt, look to Wikipedia. Its a rather useful tool.
ReplyDeleteI was playing with my stats counter and I guess someone hopped from this blog to my blog, so I was curious what an "esotericwombat" url would lead me to.
ReplyDeleteI was actually listening to Bill Moyers speaking with Jon Stewart the other night, and hadn't really heard of the funding scenario with PBS until that time, so I was shocked to hear about the bullshit.
I was watching something brilliant on PBS earlier today, but thanks to the lack of commercials, thus no bumpers, I didn't ever find out what it was. They were studying logical and affordable ways that hunger could be ended in places like Africa. It was a brilliant documentary, the kind of thought-provoking, optimistic programming offered by PBS, despite being locked in this era of pessimism and fear, as bred by big politics and big business under the nasty guide of good, old-fashioned conservative values.
PBS is the last real home of journalism in the United States, on television anyhow, and it'd be a shame to see it take more hits from the government.
Fortunately, I'm Canadian, so I'll always have the CBC--for the forseeable future, anyhow, but I prefer to fetch my American news from PBS and Jim Lehrer and all the goodly folk there.
And then, how can you not love a network that shows a documentary on the Harlem Globetrotters on one night and an indie doc on The Ramones the next? Too fucking cool for words.
Anyhow, you might like my blog. Spin on by sometime.
And we'll rise up and stab 'em with our plastic forks.