Public radio (and TV) was started because it was felt that the commercial marketplace failed to provide sufficient educational, cultural and other quality content to the public. Now with hundreds of cable channels available, this is no longer a problem. National Geographic, Travel, Food, Discover and History channels, to name a few, offer excellent programming.
Big Bird should stay home and count his millions of dollars. That’s the profit made by the Sesame Street Workshop, which licenses all its characters. It’s time now for the federal government and our tax dollars to stop funding the Public Broadcasting System, National Public Radio, National Endowment for the Arts, and National Endowment for the Humanities. These organizations by and large represent a certain political bias and do not service the American public across the spectrum. These organizations should be funded solely by foundation grants, private philanthropy, listeners/subscribers and even commercial advertising — but not by Congress.
Susan Leeper, Scottsdale
abimopectore posted at 9:29 am on Sat, Feb 19, 2011.
"National Geographic, Travel, Food, Discover and History channels, to name a few, offer excellent programming."
I would partly agree with you if these were offered freely over the air. Unfortunately, they're not and hence don't support your claim that there exists quality content to the public since there are tens of millions of households that do not use cable and many more that are leaving cable because of its continual increasing costs. Secondly, there are programs on public TV and radio that are not smeared with the political prism of any persuasion. It's unfortunate that your political perspective tends to gloss over this fact since it fails to register within your mind.
Accuracy posted at 10:57 am on Sat, Feb 19, 2011.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t fund a network” . . . You’ve got that right!
And today, Saturday, Feb. 19th, the House of Representatives passed the bill defunding Public Broadcasting and Net Netrality.
The bill will withdraw any obligation on the part of Congress to fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which dolls out public media funds, beyond 2012. Currently, the CPB receives around $420 million from the federal government.
Dale Whiting posted at 4:27 pm on Sat, Feb 19, 2011.
Hey you Neo-cons,
Care to incluce CSPAN in this? CSPAN is funded by the cable networks. Apparently when any of you subscribe to cable, part of your fees are diverted to pay for their programming.
Personally I find non-commercial programming to be refreshing. If it goes away, I shall miss it. Already I have learned to mentally tune out commercials, well most of them. The Progressive Insurance commercials are entertaining.