Personally I agree with Governor Bob McDonnell's proposal to cut funds to the Public Broadcasting System and, apparently, Brian Kirwin at
Bearing Drift agrees, writing an excellent article in the
Daily Press about those who declare Big Bird will disappear from the air waves if taxpayer money is not spent on public television:
But that's the cry you'll hear now that Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed to wean public broadcasters from special privileges and tax money. It's a cry that he should ignore.
He goes on to outline just how irrelevant PBS has become at this time of instant information:
In 1967, perhaps the three networks and a smattering of UHF stations didn't broadcast enough "quality" programming.
If I can scan past the Discovery Channel, the Science Channel, the History Channel, Animal Planet, The Learning Channel, Bravo, the Travel Channel, Arts & Entertainment, American Movie Classics, Food Network, and Home and Garden Television, I might trip over the public broadcasting station.
Public affairs programming? C-SPAN shows live coverage of the House and Senate, and there are enough 24-hour news networks to whet any activist's appetite. The only thing interesting about PBS/NPR's news reports is how different they are from reality.
Today's radio has so much public affairs talk programming that government is trying to find ways to suppress it. Add the growth in digital and satellite radio and the cry for government-funded broadcasting becomes silly.
And if cable and satellite hadn't made PBS irrelevant, the internet has made it virtually obsolete.
Gov. McDonnell gets it. Now wait for the howls of protest from those who will want to remain on the public dole.
1 comment:
"Big Bird will disappear from the air waves if taxpayer money is not spent on public television."
I did a quick survey of the church nurseries, do you realize how much licensed "Big Bird" merchandise exists in the world? They'll need a better argument than that for continued government funding.
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