Thursday, June 15, 2006
My beloved public broadcasting
I've found another reason to hate this Congress. A House subcommittee just voted to eliminate an enormous chunk of public funding for PBS and NPR. Not only does this mean that our children won't have access to any educational programming without an incessant stream of advertisements aimed at corrupting them into mindless consumers before they can read, it also means no Fresh Air, no All Things Considered, no News Hour-- in general, no broadcast journalism that isn't an entertainment product sculpted by multinational corporations with vested political interests. There is a petition protesting this and asking the legislature to continue funding public broadcasting (it is providing an invaluable public service, after all). I will be happy to send you the petition in an email if you email me and/or ask me to send it to you in a comment (if you don't have my email, you can get it from Andy or Dave). Here is a link with more info about the issue ( http://www.freepress.net/publicbroadcasting/ ). I don't understand how people can hate Grover and Jim Lehrer. They're both so huggable.
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11 comments:
The latest on the legislation in the House is they are planning to keep some of the funding they were going to cut, but they are still making massive cuts in children's programming and are planning to phase out all funding for NPR in a couple of years. But I think all of this is still in committee, so who knows what will actually happen with it.
And thank you, Grady, for your encouraging words. Keep telling yourself that, and I'll try to believe it, too. Tengo fe. Adios.
Coye, I consider myself an avid NPR listener and love almost all their programming. But if you love the programming, you love the methodology and philosophy they use to produce that programming. Shouldn't that remain no matter what the gov't funding? And if the programming doesn't stay genuine without gov't subsidy, what does that say about its integrity?
I don't know the percentage, but isn't a large portion of public radio/television funding raised by listeners, viewers and other publicly-minded educational entities? Too many people like yourself love the stations to let them die or sacrifice their publicly-funded "integrity."
Also, I have to say I don't think this funding cut is someone's "agenda," so to speak. (Though I will grant you that yes, some conservatives say there's a liberal bent to NPR and would love to suck dry the liberals' coffers.) Let's be honest and recognize the plentitude of conflicting issues, projects, and programs Congress needs to fund. There's only so much money to go around!!! I know that the next argument will be about the terrible choices Congress is making about where to spend that money and how it only pads the pockets of the warhawks, but are you going to tell me NPR and PBS haven't made stupid choices about how to spend the money they're given? And that there ISN'T a detectable leftward lean that you and I are funding?
Just as a side note, I'm constantly fascinated by how provoked it is possible to get over such a variety of issues. I'm not knocking it, seriously, I just find it hard myself to get so worked up over so many things.
The cheap PHC tickets were $65, so no, I did not go see it live.
Yes, I realize that this is only a piece of a much larger picture of national budget issues, but, given the central importance of media in our society, I don't think that public broadcasting is a small or side issue-- especially when we're talking about children's programming and journalism. People talk about how many acts of violence a child sees by the time they turn 18; I worry about the number of commercials a child is exposed to by the time they start kindergarten. Our kids should be able to watch Sesame Street without having Matel et al warping their wants and desires every seven and a half minutes.
just a thought here... but how about giving the children better things to do than watching t.v.? I certainly never noticed the lack of stimulation growing up and I was not allowed more than an hour or two a day at max.
I was never allowed more than an hour or two of television a day growing up, too, but much of that hour or two came from PBS. I watched Sesame Street, Mister Rodgers, Reading Rainbow and later 3-2-1 Contact and Square One. It definitely helped cultivate an interest in learning in me. Coye interesting point about the commercials. I guess when I have kids they'll be limited to watching the World Cup every 4 years as it might be the only televison left without commercials.
Yes. Of course it isn't a good idea to sit kids down in front of endless hours of any television programming, but I don't think the medium is entirely bad. I grew up with pretty much the same television regimine as Strauss (actually, those exact five shows made up the bulk of my youthful television watching), and I think that some programs can have a positive impact on children. That's why I really hope that they can continue to watch good programs without commercials; I don't really know if there is such a thing as good commercials-- not for children, at least.
Good to hear from you, Jon.
Jon makes a great point which reminds me of a story from my childhood that has provided endless amusement to various groups of people (Katie is usually the one to tell it). When I was a lad, I went to a friend's house where we watched a cartoon. On a WEEKDAY!! Since I only watched PBS shows, and even those in limited quantities, this blew my mind. I had no idea that cartoons were available outside of Saturday morning. So I went home and told my mom that for my birthday I wanted "one of those tvs that can get cartoons everyday." Clearly, PBS had not yet done wonders for my cause and effect reasoning skills. I was of the belief that my tv just didn't work that way--and my mother did nothing to disabuse me of that notion (if I can steal a phrase from Leland Ryken).
On another note, oddly enough, I was watching exactly the same shows as Strauss and Coye... think about that for a minute and you'll start to understand Coye's concern. From childhood, the three of us (and I suspect several others who read these posts) were shaped by this core group of media. It shaped, in ways that we probably don't understand, some of our earliest attitudes toward education--as evidenced by the fact that all of us are attending graduate programs on some level. Is this commercial-free programming important? You be the judge.
You guys raise some good points. But I also just don't believe that the quality of PBS today is as good as what we enjoyed as kids. Of the five shows mentioned so far, (Sesame Street, Mister Rodgers, Reading Rainbow and later 3-2-1 Contact and Square One) the only one to still be on the air is Sesame Street.(at least on my station) I challenge you guys to sit down one day and watch the todays PBS childrens broadcasting and then think back to the shows we remember. To me it seems as if the educational and developemental quality has fallen drastically. However you can also make the case I suppose that what we have now is still better than nothing at all.
Sorry for the grammatical errors Andy.
I want one of those televisions that shows all the world cup matches.
My local PBS station has Mr. Rogers, Reading Rainbow and Sesame Street. (The first two are only in reruns, obviously.) There are also some shows I haven't seen and some I have watched with my niece (some of which are better than others).
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