Public Broadcasting Targeted By House

Upchurch said:
Wait, huh? I hear a lot about the how awful public radio/television is from conservative talk shows, but I hardly hear anything from Democrats.

What are you referring to?
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The Republicans rant and rave because PBS was giving air time to Jim Lehrer and Bill Moyers. Apparently, they forget that the McLaughlin group often featured high profile conservatives against fairly weak ideological counterparts.

What democrats do is this:
A. maybe we should stop funding as much for public broadcasting
B. You are robbing america's children of big bird you big-business supporting mean spirited radical.
 
corplinx said:
What democrats do is this:
A. maybe we should stop funding as much for public broadcasting
B. You are robbing america's children of big bird you big-business supporting mean spirited radical.
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No, I understand what "demonize" means. What I'm really asking is: who is doing this?
 
Upchurch said:
No, I understand what "demonize" means. What I'm really asking is: who is doing this?
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It has been floated as a talking point by conservative commentators for a while. These things seem to happen quietly.
 
Upchurch said:
No, I understand what "demonize" means. What I'm really asking is: who is doing this?
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Just for starters, Clarence Page at the Chicago Tribune. From the story in the first post, I'd say that David Obey of Wisconsin also fits into that category: "Americans overwhelmingly see public broadcasting as an unbiased information source, Perhaps that's what the GOP finds so offensive about it." He said that with full knowledge that in fact the Bush administration proposed only modest cuts to public broadcasting and that the Senate likes to fund the programs. I'd say extrapolating a single subcommittee vote into "the GOP" is demonizing, given the evidence to the contrary.

As good as an idea as this is, it's politically a non-starter. The subcommittee might as well have suggested a targeted tax break for puppy drowners.
 
manny said:

As good as an idea as this is, it's politically a non-starter. The subcommittee might as well have suggested a targeted tax break for puppy drowners.
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Nah, they would just put that as a rider on a defense appropriation bill. :-)
 
corplinx said:
public tv is a relic of the VHF oligarchy

I wish the Dems would stop using this issue to demonize and get with the 21st century already.
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Before that happens, I think it's more incumbent on the repubs to get with the 20th century.
 
Lawmakers seek to starve Big Bird
Baltimore Sun, MD - 8 hours ago

GOP Is Trying To Kill PBS
TheDay (subscription), CT - 5 hours ago

Mind you, thats just what a quick search turned up. My guess is that if this story catches on like it did 10 years ago, we will hear much of the same shrill rhetoric on each side with right wingers claiming PBS is biased against them and the Democracts claiming the republicans ae against children, children's shows, and want to detain Big Bird at gitmo.
 
corplinx said:
want to detain Big Bird at gitmo.
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Big Bird has important intelligence to offer us Sesame Streeters in the War on Electric Company and may be implicated in the death of Mr. Hooper. Don't let the simple fact that he's a Sesame Street citizen fool you -- this is a bad bird.
 
Rob Lister said:
For any that are interested, the federal budget for CPB funding works out to about one dollar per person per year ($333m in 2004). Bill gates pays substantially more of that dollar, I pay substantially less. I could work out the difference given enough time but it's hardly worth bothering.

I don't watch them often. I find them very liberal for my taste but that's because my views are more conservative than are theirs. I do watch Frontline (I agree it is the best produced documentary series on television today), Nova, Nature (sometimes), and other shows. I don't contribute to their funding drives, but I get my <$1 worth. I've got no beef with them at that price.

ETA: all of those above mentioned shows would get picked up in a half a heartbeat by other cable channels. In fact, they often try to do just that.
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More often than not, in this context, "liberal"=anything that doesn't validate my belief.
 
corplinx said:
Lawmakers seek to starve Big Bird
Baltimore Sun, MD - 8 hours ago

GOP Is Trying To Kill PBS
TheDay (subscription), CT - 5 hours ago

Mind you, thats just what a quick search turned up. My guess is that if this story catches on like it did 10 years ago, we will hear much of the same shrill rhetoric on each side with right wingers claiming PBS is biased against them and the Democracts claiming the republicans ae against children, children's shows, and want to detain Big Bird at gitmo.
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The more basic issue is why should the funding come from the government?

It seems to me that Sesame Street is an industry and if it is that popular it also seems to me that people would pay for it.

With the help of Big Bird and Cookie Monster, this workshop tells children how to get to Sesame Street. Sesame Workshop, which operates with the goal of using TV as an educational tool, produces the Emmy Award-winning children's show "Sesame Street". It receives revenues from licensing as well as funding from a variety of sponsors, including the US Department of Education, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Ford Foundation. Founded in 1968 as the Children's Television Workshop, it changed its name to Sesame Workshop after buying the "Sesame Street" Muppet characters from EM.TV for $180 million in 2000. The company is expanding its brand into troubled world sports such as Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
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Yahoo reports fy '03 revenues of 93mm USD.

Seems like Big Bird is Big Bucks
 
Ed said:

It seems to me that Sesame Street is an industry and if it is that popular it also seems to me that people would pay for it.
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Indeed. Supposedly it is an hour of commercial free children's programming. However, it is itself an ad for toys and various branded products.
 
But if they take away the funding, where will the Military get the music needed to break prisoners being interrogated? Somehow I can’t see a defense contractor being able to produce something like the Barney song.;) :D :)
 
Tmy said:
I hate when people say that. Its so ignorant to ignore an entire medium just cause your friends think its the cool thing to do.
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Yeah, when me and my drinking buddies get together, the first thing we do is open a book...
 
Orwell said:
But no more commercial free children's shows. That's a bummer, I think.
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"Commercial free"? The whole "show" is a commercial! Or haven't you been to a children's store lately?
 
I actually enjoy NPR, and I only just recently discovered it on my radio. It's good talk radio and they are the best news source on the radio.
 
WildCat said:
"Commercial free"? The whole "show" is a commercial! Or haven't you been to a children's store lately?
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Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but Sesame Street is not the only children's show on PBS...
 
I wonder how the proceeds from Sesame Street toy sales are divided. At any rate, the cutting of funds to public broadcasting isn't just a threat to children's programs, but also to a fairly balanced news source.
 
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