Public Broadcasting Targeted By House

thaiboxerken said:
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.

Rapidly on the way to being the only one.
 
Orwell said:
Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but Sesame Street is not the only children's show on PBS...

Good point! PBS has also proven to be an effective advertiser for Clifford the Big Red Dog, Tellytubbies, Barney, Berenstein Bears, etc...
 
aerocontrols said:
Good point! PBS has also proven to be an effective advertiser for Clifford the Big Red Dog, Tellytubbies, Barney, Berenstein Bears, etc...

And reading rainbow, Nova, Zooboomafoo, BBC news world, British comedies, American masters, masterpiece theater, and I don't know how many other programs that would never pass on regular commercial TV...
 
Orwell said:
And reading rainbow, Nova, Zooboomafoo, BBC news world, British comedies, American masters, masterpiece theater, and I don't know how many other programs that would never pass on regular commercial TV...

We're discussing commercial-free children's shows. My point was directed at your point. Change to a different point if you must, but I'm not buying that Sesame Street would die if PBS did.

Nonetheless, you don't have to convince me that Public Television is valuable. I fully support the federal government picking up around 10% of the tab, as long as they can find the other 90% somewhere else. Of course, if they could find the other 10% in those other places, we wouldn't have this issue to argue over
 
Orwell said:
But no more commercial free children's shows. That's a bummer, I think. [/B]

"Treehouse" channel, at least in Canada. 24 hours/day childrens shows. A number of the PBS children's shows also appear on this channel. No direct advertising, although the majority of the programs appear to have merchandise available in children's stores, as do most shows on PBS. Is there no equivalent channel available in the good ol' USA?
 
Mark said:
Rapidly on the way to being the only one.

Get Sirius satellite radio. It has much better news, talk and music than anything on the normal AM/Fm dial.
 
Tony said:
Get Sirius satellite radio. It has much better news, talk and music than anything on the normal AM/Fm dial.

I really do need to do that.
 
aerocontrols said:
We're discussing commercial-free children's shows. My point was directed at your point. Change to a different point if you must, but I'm not buying that Sesame Street would die if PBS did.

Nonetheless, you don't have to convince me that Public Television is valuable. I fully support the federal government picking up around 10% of the tab, as long as they can find the other 90% somewhere else. Of course, if they could find the other 10% in those other places, we wouldn't have this issue to argue over

Well then, why are we bitching? For recreation?

In Canada, we have state supported TV (CBC and it's french counterpart), it sucks and, to make things worse, it isn't commercial free...
 
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.


Right on!
We are spending ~$1.5 billion a week on this STUPID war. Why don't we put it on hold for two weeks and fund CPB for 5 years and give everyone in the U.S. back about $5 bucks each, or use it to pay off (a very small part of) this (also) STUPID debt we are running up.

Daredelvis
 
daredelvis said:
Right on!
We are spending ~$1.5 billion a week on this STUPID war. Why don't we put it on hold for two weeks and fund CPB for 5 years and give everyone in the U.S. back about $5 bucks each, or use it to pay off (a very small part of) this (also) STUPID debt we are running up.

Daredelvis

Stop making sense. This is a Republican controlled era, and we don't have time for such subversive captrap. :D
 
Orwell said:
Well then, why are we bitching? For recreation?

'We' are not bitching. You started this thread, not me. I happen to think that PBS and NPR can do with or without CPB funding or any other federal funding, for that matter. The flip side of 'it only costs a dollar a day per taxpayer' is 'the vast majority of the funding comes directly from the public'. If people want to pay 10% or 25% or 100% of PBS's budget through my taxes, then that's something my Congress is going to debate, forever. However, I'm not that concerned one way or the other.

As I said, my point was directed at yours. To answer your second question - I come here for recreation. If I didn't enjoy posting here, I wouldn't. Why are you here bitching about US public television, because you suspect some of us are congressional aides?

Orwell said:
In Canada, we have state supported TV (CBC and it's french counterpart), it sucks and, to make things worse, it isn't commercial free...

Rest assured, I won't start any threads about how Canada chooses to fund its television programming.
 
aerocontrols said:
'We' are not bitching. You started this thread, not me. I happen to think that PBS and NPR can do with or without CPB funding or any other federal funding, for that matter. The flip side of 'it only costs a dollar a day per taxpayer' is 'the vast majority of the funding comes directly from the public'. If people want to pay 10% or 25% or 100% of PBS's budget through my taxes, then that's something my Congress is going to debate, forever. However, I'm not that concerned one way or the other.

Yeah, but since you seem to not mind that part of PBS's budget is paid by the US gov., I facetiously asked "why are we bitching?" i.e. if we essentially agree, why are we arguing? For recreation?

aerocontrols said:

As I said, my point was directed at yours. To answer your second question - I come here for recreation. If I didn't enjoy posting here, I wouldn't. Why are you here bitching about US public television, because you suspect some of us are congressional aides?

It was a joke. I thought it was obvious that I was kidding.


aerocontrols said:

Rest assured, I won't start any threads about how Canada chooses to fund its television programming.

Maybe I should start one.
 
corplinx said:
Indeed. Supposedly it is an hour of commercial free children's programming. However, it is itself an ad for toys and various branded products.
So what, they're damned if they suck 100% at the government's teat, and they're damned if they find a way to generate some of their own money?
 
aerocontrols said:
Good point! PBS has also proven to be an effective advertiser for Clifford the Big Red Dog, Tellytubbies, Barney, Berenstein Bears, etc...
And Monty Python movies, books, games, plays and videos, Julia Child cookbooks, Sotheby's because of Antiques Roadshow, Sears because of This Old House, Yeah. And that blatant capitalism is the smoking gun that proves that PBS is liberally biased!

Wait a minute..... I'm getting a message from Captain Irrelevant....
 
Let's not forget that bastion of the Looney Left Wing, Firing Line. It poisoned the minds of America for 33 years with its 'balanced' discussion of issues. That card-carrying liberal William F. Buckley thought he could get away with it, too, but they made him leave in 1999. Probably because he founded that nutty liberally biased National Review. Or possibly because he often devoted whole shows to promoting that leftie rag, all paid for by you and me! Or possibly because he would have liberals on like Rush Limbaugh for the whole show, again all paid for by you and me. I am glad that whoever is in charge over there finally wised up and canned his liberal butt.
 

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