Standing up for public television

STANDING UP FOR PUBLIC TELEVISION
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Ken Burns, filmaker]
[Commentary] It is that time of year again, when attacks on PBS remind those of us who labor in its besieged vineyards how much we must be prepared to defend our unique but vulnerable institution. With wearying frequency, we are forced to justify our existence to grandstanding politicians who believe that public television must be de-funded (despite the relatively little federal funding -- $1 per person per year -- it requires) because it operates outside of their vaunted "marketplace," and then to those misguided cultural critics who mistake our mission and demand of us something we are not. If enacted, President Bush's budget proposal to Congress would reduce public broadcasting's funding for 2009 and 2010 by 56%. Adding insult to injury, the New York Times took its own swipe a few weeks back, arguing in a Sunday arts piece that PBS has grown tired and frayed and obsolete in a television universe that now includes hundreds and hundreds of choices. It is important to remember, literally, what we stand for. PBS is not the Public Broadcasting System. It is the Public Broadcasting Service; we are obligated to serve the public in a number of decidedly unsexy ways. PBS helps make our country worth defending.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-burns6mar06,1,550...
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* Time for public broadcasting to leave home (Heritage Foundation)
The rationale for subsidizing the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio is outdated. If PBS and NPR do good work - and they often do - they ought to be able to go it alone in the marketplace.
http://www.islandpacket.com/nation/opinion/story/243870.html