why public broadcasting is important to me, and why cutting it off at the knees would devastate everyone
in our household, we make use of our local public broadcasting stations on a daily basis. we are huge supporters of our Alabama Public Radio, NPR, APT, and PBS.
radio shows listened to on a daily basis
- Morning Edition
- Marketplace
- Writer’s Almanac
- All Things Considered
- The World
radio shows listened to on a near weekly basis (via podcast or on radio)
- Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me
- This American Life
- Studio360
- The Splendid Table
- Marketplace Weekend
- Prairie Home Companion
- The Crooners
- All Songs Considered
- Radiolab
TV shows on APR/PBS
- Sesame Street (daily)
- Austin City Limits
- anything Ken Burns (massive historical & documentarian value)
- American Masters
does anyone in their right mind think any of that programming would have a home in any of the other media spaces today? i would have little in the way of a working knowledge of what happened in the recent economic meltdown were it not for the incredible series of shows This American Life put together. can you fathom a place like Fox News or CNN or MSNBC even attempting something like that?
public broadcasting in the forms of PBS, NPR, and PRI are incredibly important. it’s educational for all ages, entertaining, enlightening, moving, thought-provoking and fair. we often hear of how lib’rul and left the newsrooms of NPR are, but i have a hard time ever hearing it. just yesterday, in a piece on the new Obama budget, they provided equal time in the segment for the Republican and Democrat viewpoints, and then went on to interview a Republican Senator at length. it was a tough interview, but completely fair and thorough.
the whole thing is just inane and i firmly believe those who denigrate the usefulness of public broadcasting have never spent more than an hour paying attention to it. i leave you with this.
