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PBS News Hour West to go dark after ASU discontinues contract

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Re: PBS News Hour West to go dark after ASU discontinues contract

#11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you going to spend a couple hundred dollars a year on a subscription? Good, freely accessible, and ad-free press. You can only choose 2. The economics of journalism are tough.

The economics are rough, but there are many which offer all three. E.g.: NPR's text site: https://text.npr.org/

Public funding is kind of a cheat, but if we're gonna include them, I'd like to spruik that the ABC still technically has functional rss feeds: https://james.cridland.net/blog/2025/abc-news-australia-rss-...

They're no longer officially supported though.

Re: PBS News Hour West to go dark after ASU discontinues contract

#12
The article doesn’t mention it, but I wonder if this has anything to do with ASU’s President trying to cozy up with the Trump administration [0]. Trump has already at least tried to cut federal funding for PBS [1]. I’m not sure where that’s at now.

[0]: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/arizona-state-universi...

[1]: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/02/nx-s1-5384790/trump-orders-en...

Re: PBS News Hour West to go dark after ASU discontinues contract

#13

The article doesn’t mention it, but I wonder if this has anything to do with ASU’s President trying to cozy up with the Trump administration [0]. Trump has already at least tried to cut federal funding for PBS [1]. I’m not sure where that’s at now. [0]: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/arizona-state-universi... [1]: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/02/nx-s1-5384790/trump-orders-en...

It got cut.

Re: PBS News Hour West to go dark after ASU discontinues contract

#14
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you going to spend a couple hundred dollars a year on a subscription? Good, freely accessible, and ad-free press. You can only choose 2. The economics of journalism are tough.

> Are you going to spend a couple hundred dollars a year on a subscription? I would have, if this planet didn't f*ck me over yet again with crippling poverty lol

> I would have, if this planet didn't f*ck me over yet again with crippling poverty lol

You misspelled capitalists. They are the ones who are fucking you, me, and anyone with money.

Re: PBS News Hour West to go dark after ASU discontinues contract

#15
post #2

[flagged]

Are you going to spend a couple hundred dollars a year on a subscription? Good, freely accessible, and ad-free press. You can only choose 2. The economics of journalism are tough.

Strangely we used to think nothing of paying for a daily newspaper (which also contained ads) and many people subscribed to news magazines as well.

Re: PBS News Hour West to go dark after ASU discontinues contract

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you going to spend a couple hundred dollars a year on a subscription? Good, freely accessible, and ad-free press. You can only choose 2. The economics of journalism are tough.

Strangely we used to think nothing of paying for a daily newspaper (which also contained ads) and many people subscribed to news magazines as well.

Yeah. This is the tech world making everything better. Sure the news is biased, poorly-written garbage, but you can have a lot of it, instantly, for like no money!

Re: PBS News Hour West to go dark after ASU discontinues contract

#19

The article doesn’t mention it, but I wonder if this has anything to do with ASU’s President trying to cozy up with the Trump administration [0]. Trump has already at least tried to cut federal funding for PBS [1]. I’m not sure where that’s at now. [0]: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/arizona-state-universi... [1]: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/02/nx-s1-5384790/trump-orders-en...

It got cut.

People shouting about PBS news being horribly biased are just flat-out wrong. Obviously their viewership leans centrist liberal, but no other news program in recent times approached their level of nonpartisanship when dealing with national politics. Regardless of their affiliation, they’d ask most interviewees a couple of pointed questions but always let them explain themselves uninterrupted, and let them have the last word unless it was blatantly false. In the Obama era they regularly had top Republican leadership on from that era and years past— Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, and Mitch McConnell were on there all the time. I’ve seen Steve Bannon respectfully (actually rather warmly) interviewed within the past year, as well as people from the heritage foundation, Manhattan institute, Cato institute, and other people from across the right-wing spectrum.

David Brooks isn’t representative of the Republican mainstream at the moment, but they’ve started getting more representative Republican counterpoints on their panels over the past few months, even after the republicans cut their funding.

They present a more reasonable, tempered, and charitable perspective on both political parties than any other major news outlet.

Culture war bullshit.

Re: PBS News Hour West to go dark after ASU discontinues contract

#20

I’m glad Walter Cronkite is remembered through that school. In my mind, he was one of the last great journalists from an era that wasn’t strongly politically biased.

When I read that I'm always personally confused. He had a commanding voice and had an aurora of being above it all. But when you listened and watched what he actually did, he seemed very political in my mind, though perhaps more of a moderate(?).

He even advocated for world government, endorsed politicians, etc.

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