Posted on 04/22/2005 8:38:21 AM PDT by blues-train
PBS Scrutiny Raises Political Antennas
By Paul Farhi Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 22, 2005; Page C01
Liberal commentator Bill Moyers is out on PBS stations. Buster the animated rabbit is under a cloud of suspicion. And right-wing yakkers from the Wall Street Journal editorial page have been handed their own public-television chat show.
Some observers, including people inside the Public Broadcasting Service, see these recent developments as troubling. PBS, they say, is being forced to toe a more conservative line in its programming by the Republican-dominated agency that provides about $30 million in federal funds to the Alexandria-based service. .......
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
$30 million ? Why a freekin dime ?
So stop taking taxpayer money...easy
...about $30 million in federal funds [goes to PBS].
Pay your own bills, PBS, and then you can make the rules.
potentially in violation of the First Amendment? The federal funding for PBS and the CPB itself is definitely in violation of the 10th Amendment
If your that dedicated to promoting your own ideolgies via the airwaves....do it gratis
Go ahead PravdaBroadcastingSystem..bite that hand that feeds you.
Po's the caller, and they never call back.
Why should PBS be a repository for Liberal ideas only? Why should the likes of Bill Moyers have more currency than say Britt Hume or Bill Kristol?
It isn't their money. It's yours!!
When I flip through channels and for some reason stop on a pbs station: I see full length commercials from corporate donors, infomercials for some new age "doctor Phil" kinda guy, donation drives. That and the taking peoples money in taxes is a pretty sweet scam.
Was that comment for me, or for PBS?
I can always go on the local public access cable channel if I want to run off at the mouth.
I say its long overdue to give conservatives a voice on PBS!
pBS:
Eschew taking tax dollars and just have an extra Telethon.
After all, there are always plenty more liberals who are stupid enough to pay a hundred bucks for a coffee mug that says, "I love Castro!"...
I say its long overdue to get rid of PBS.
If PBS programming is so dad-gummed superior to the fare on cable or over-the-air commercial stations, let's see 'em sell those shows and get PBS hands the hell out of our pockets. Same deal with NPR.
After all, if the nerds at PBS are concerned that the tone of their progamming may be getting a titch more conservative, well, I guess PBS doesn't maintain a very balanced blend of programmiing - does it?
Whiners. Nothing but whiners.
No, not you....most definately aimed at the nimrods at PBS.
yeah ,... known as , PlentyBullS**t ,...it is wall to wall bolsheviks , no kiddin' , right down to the maintenance staff and the subcontractors/vendors
I can believe that!
If we stop funding PBS the liberals will still own it and will likely get even more donations from Democrats.
Better that conservatives take it over and create a conservative network there that will be the answer to the middle-left FOX and the other radical communist networks.
We can finance our PBS network with the Democrat's tax dollars.
A two week fundraiser? Here in LA, it's more like a four week fundraiser, every other month.
Here's an idea:
First make PBS very conservative.
Then the Libs will WANT to de-fund it!
Problem solved!
BUMP
Yes, and we're going to push into PBS if the new "fairness" doctrine goes into effect. I can't wait! Conservative TV and radio WITHOUT commercials! < :D
As a pretty rigid libertarian, I am fundamentally against a lot of federal government funded/run programs, but I think public broadcasting as it was initially set up is a good idea - in that it was intended to be a modularly regulated educational outlet.
However, as production costs have decreased and federal funding and corporate sponsorship has grown over the past two decades it has become yet another liberal media outlet.
The PBS funding is pulled as opposed to pushed. If they want the funding they get it.
When I was getting my master's at Emerson I took a public broadcasting management class which was taught by Robert Hilliard - an FDR liberal (the guy's probably 80 years old) who ran PBS under 4 presidents from JFK to Ford.
Hilliard is a very intelligent man who was open to conservative views (which in this class of 40 included me and one more person), I found the class to be very informative and eye opening, in that this man who really helped to shape PBS & CPB was vocal about his opinions.
In one discussion about a liberal bias, I said, part of the reason why PBS is losing a lot of viewers to cable outlets such as Discovery and History (the #1 problem facing PBS) is because a majority of people who fall into the demographic that watches PBS (intelligent educated people over 35) have different political views than those being increasing espoused by the PBS talking heads and creative programming , and frankly are instinctually insulted when they feel they are being lectured, and don't like seeing their tax dollars going to an institution that is biased.
Hilliard agreed it was biased, but said it was the duty of any institution like PBS to speak to the needs of the underclass.
Trust me; this view is shared by the majority of people working at WGBH and the Pacifica stations which produce almost all of the programming for PBS.
Obviously they are scared; all liberals get scared when their intellectual monopolies are challenged.
The issue to them is not about equal time with conservatives, it is the fact that the introduction of opposing views to a relative safe haven will disrupt the PBS fallacy expressed by Hilliard.
Look, if PBS keeps losing viewer ship, then they will not be able to justify their budgets. If I were a liberal, I would acquiesce here, it’s either accept the ½ hour of conservative talking heads or lose the one stage where you can show documentaries about transgendered paraplegic illegal immigrants.
Believe it or not PBS used to have it's corporate headquarters in the same building at L'Enfant Plaza as USPS.
There was no PBS until LBJ.
yeah, actually you are right, but public broadcasting as a federal entity existed since the 1930's with the federal communications act being passed and kennedy expanded it greatly in 61 or 62. I forget what the bill he passed was called.
Eric,
Your post prompted me to do some googling, before PBS was formed, Hilliard was the chief of the "public broadcasting branch of the FCC".
I seed had been planted.
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