Save Big Bird, Nova, Jim Lehrer: Congress must not pull the plug on PBS and NPR (Defund now!)

NY Daily News ^ | 2/7/11 | WILLIAM F. BAKER

[jimbo123]

This month, there are four bills pending in Congress that would eliminate federal funding for the most trusted institution in America. For the last seven years, according to the annual Roper opinion poll, more Americans put their trust in this institution than any other. In 2010, it ranked two times higher than the criminal justice system, 2-1/2 times higher than network television and a whopping 7-1/2 times higher than Congress. One hundred and eleven million Americans use it every month, yet the U.S. spends less per capita on this institution than any other First World country spends on the equivalent. I am talking, of course, about public television.

Why cut off funds for PBS?

[jimbo123]

Be sure to call your Congresspersons and tell them to defund PBS, NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting now.

[pnh102]

Why cut off funds for PBS?

Funny. The author of this piece fails to provide the Constitutional justification for public funding of PBS.

Here's what I don't get. People do watch PBS and listen to NPR, so clearly there's an audience for the programming. Is it really going to be that hard for these broadcasters to find advertisers which can cater to this audience?

[BigSkyFreeper]

There’s just absolute panic oozing from that headline.

[Repeal The 17th]

The author (William F. Baker) so the article adds this:
-
During my 20 years as president of Channel 13, the nation’s flagship PBS station, I received tens of thousands of letters from parents thanking me for the safe haven my station provided for their kids, for being the one media destination where children can always find shows to help them learn and grow, free of any commercial agenda. I got letters from immigrants, grateful for programs that helped them learn about, respect and become Americans. I remember a woman in the last months of her life who painted all the numbers on her remote control black except for the “one” and the “three.” My daughter, who is a hospice nurse, has said to me, “You will never know how many dying people cling to your station in their last days.”
-

[Diogenesis]

NPR and PBS began the use of violent language.

Has there been a single apology to the American public, yet?

"PRESIDENT OBAMA: And this week, .... we're going to be doing is bringing some of them into the White House and --
JIM LEHRER: To crack heads?"

---

"To crack heads?" Lehrer asks.
"Oh, I don't know about cracking heads," Obama said, "facilitating a discussion that solves these problems." "

---

"PBS's Lehrer Badgers Obama from the Left: What About Banks' 'Huge Profits?'
By Matthew Balan | July 21, 2009 - 11:56
"PBS's Jim Lehrer ... urged the executive to "crack heads"
to get his health care plan passed, and inquired if "taxing the wealthy" was an option to fund it.
Lehrer later pressed Mr. Obama on the "huge profits" being made by "big Wall Street banks.""

---

Obama:
“They Bring a Knife…We Bring a Gun”

Obama to His Followers:
“Get in Their Faces!”

Obama on ACORN Mobs:
“I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I’m angry!”

Obama to His Mercenary Army:
“Hit Back Twice As Hard”

Obama on the private sector:
“We talk to these folks… so I know whose ass to kick.“

Obama to voters:
Republican victory would mean “hand to hand combat”

Obama to lib supporters:
“It’s time to Fight for it.”

Obama to Latino supporters:
“Punish your enemies.”

Obama to democrats:
“I’m itching for a fight.”

[BigSkyFreeper]

Baker needs to get out more. PBS is not the only place in the whole TV universe little children can get children's programming.

But, yeah, the last thing I want to see on my deathbed is Big Bird and Jim Lehrer. /s

[hal ogen]

They “cling to your station in their last days” because they are dieing and can’t move to change the channel...but the loony left staff put on the public TV drivel. Sheesh...these ever-idiot moonbat lefties go to any length to justify their position...even taking advantage of helpless dieing elderly people. Pathetic!

[Haiku Guy]

...yet the U.S. spends less per capita on this institution than any other First World country spends on the equivalent.

When your government spends less than other governments on propaganda, that's a good thing.

[from occupied ga]

Why cut off funds for PBS?

Where to begin?

Let's start with the fundamental question as to why my hard earned and then looted money is used for this at all? Why should I pay for their drivel when I don't watch it?

I've heard many arguments from public broadcasting supporters that it's mostly paid for by charitable donations anyway (which I don't believe.) If this is the case, then let it ALL get funded voluntarily.

[originalbuckeye]

‘the most trusted institution in America’ ?????

Maybe by Lefties but not be most citizens!

[LibLieSlayer]

Cut off every dime of funding... sell off the equipment and send all employees to reeducation camps for decompressing the communist ideology that they have been brainwashed with.

LLS

[Texas Fossil]

Total steaming pile of BS!

Here is what PBS is saying:

“NEW RESEARCH CONFIRMS PBS THE MOST TRUSTED AND UNBIASED SOURCE FOR NEWS AHEAD OF FOX NEWS CHANNEL, CNN AND OTHER COMMERCIAL NETWORKS “

http://www.pbs.org/roperpoll2010/

(Notice the statement of “New Research”)

“The research was conducted in December 2009 and January 2010 by the non-partisan, international research company GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media.”

(1 year old Poll data is new??)

“In the 2010 poll, 45 percent of respondents said they trust PBS more than any other nationally known organization.”

(but there is newer data they don’t talk about.)

—

DEFUND PBS/NPR NOW!

[Graybeard58]

the most trusted institution in America.

In the very first sentence!

That's as far as I needed to read.

[ken5050]

Dear Mr. Baker

Please post online, and publish in this paper, the salaries and benefit packages of the top 200 executives of PBS and NPR..

[Rashputin]

They’re so popular they can go it alone, so let em’.

I’m so sick of hearing how good PBS is when you can always read democrat press releases and know in advance exactly what the great minds on PBS and NPR will be saying.

[Joe Boucher]

It really pisses me off that the turds in congress take my money for this crap.

[Graybeard58]

Is it really going to be that hard for these broadcasters to find advertisers which can cater to this audience?

If they would change to an all classical music format, I'd support it with my dollars but I wouldn't advocate supporting it with yours.

[muir_redwoods]

I won’t miss big bird, I certainly won’t miss the eco-preaching that Nova has descended ino. I find it “charming” that the only way Programing By Socialists(PBS) can survive is with confiscatory funding.

[cranked]

Defund, defund, and defund.....or was tat supposed to be “jobs, jobs, and jobs”? /s =.=

[mikey_hates_everything]

Save Big Bird? How much did they make off of Tickle-Me-Elmo? They don’t need my money.