muddysmind.com

PBS B.S.

The House of Representatives restored the proposed budget cuts that PBS’ defenders claimed would “destroy” it. So PBS has been saved. Who can contain their excitement?

Of course, the debate over PBS was enormously silly, but let’s leave up the party streamers anyway.

Now, I must disclose a bit here. I worked in the backalleys of PBS for about a half-dozen years. I produced a weekly television show and several documentaries, and I was involved on the business side of things quite a bit. I’ve attended annual meetings and conferences. In short, I know a little bit about public television.

And … it’s liberal. It just is. To say it isn’t is just plain batty. The shows we associate most with PBS are run by liberals — some of them great journalists and some of them miserable partisan hacks — and they tend to tackle questions from a liberal perspective. The people who run PBS are liberals. The decision-makers are liberals, and — contrary to funhouse logic of PBS’s left-wing critics — the fact that these executives sometimes opt to put conservatives on the air doesn’t change that fact. It might mean, as some leftist critics claim, that PBS execs don’t have the courage of their convictions. Or it might just mean that they’re trying to make the network more balanced and respond to a perceived need.

Full Story @ National Review Online

Posted by Muddy at July 1, 2005 05:04 PM | TrackBack