Wednesday, March 23, 2011

On the Credibility of Public Broadcasting

The reason we started PBS and NPR and the CPB was to allow for broadcasting free of commercial interests, right? So public broadcasting is supposed to look carefully to its credibility, its only real currency with the public.

And now, with the threat that federal funds might dry up, PBS is running advertisements (most of what is advertised on PBS is PBS, of course) implying that if federal funding ends, PBS may disappear, along with all the programs that have ever aired on it. Somehow, public broadcasting can't survive at all if it loses the small margin of funding it gets from Uncle Sugar.

This is the kind of blatant fear-mongering that normally gets lambasted by pundits when it's carried on by political candidates. When threats like this are used to sell commercial products, truth-in-advertising watchdogs go into hyperdrive.

When PBS does it, apparently no one notices.

Because apparently, no one is watching PBS but SWNID.

6 comments:

Christian said...

SWNID and children.

Anonymous said...
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CDW@UW said...

But Anon, Santa Claus is a Democrat.

Rob said...

Awwww man. I had given up reading swear words for Lent. Thanks a lot anonymous.

Jon A. Alfred E. Michael J. Wile E. SWNID said...

Anon, if you want attention, you'll need to use a name. And profanity no longer garners attention. Especially when you're also missing the point of the post.

Try sobering up before reading.

Anonymous said...
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