Parade Magazine is asking readers if their money should support PBS:
From the site:
In the next few months, Congress will decide whether to continue supporting Big Bird—or give him the ax. Public broadcasting gets around $400 million annually from the U.S. government, which covers about 15% of local station budgets. (Most shows are funded primarily by producers, viewer donations, private foundations and corporations.) Now the Bush Administration has proposed cutting funding by half.
Those who agree with this decrease say that, with the availability of high-quality cable-TV shows, public TV is unnecessary. Its average nightly audience is 2.1 million—around half of the viewership of pro wrestling. Responds Eric Boehlert, senior fellow at Media Matters, a nonprofit media watchdog group: “PBS is a success story for the government, ranking up there with the national parks. Any cuts would hurt the millions of people who can’t or won’t pay for cable.” Should tax dollars support PBS? Vote at Parade.com.
1 Comment
Absolutely YES! No one likes to have to sit through the interminably long commercials on commercial TV! However, there is one thing worse. If public financing means that Administrations like the George W. Bush Administration can foist their own twisted ideas on all the PBS watchers, then I think that’s a BAD thing! I see a lot of “Carrier” shows are on PBS now, and to me, that just means that Bush and Cheney have too much influence on PBS, and can make them show whatever Bush and Cheney want them to show. In my opinion, the PBS show “Carrier” is just another attempt to propagandize the American public. So, if that is the result of public financing then I do not want any part of it.