I don't want to be "that guy", but I often find myself as the "intolerable lib" in some situations and the "intolerable con" in others, so here we go: There is a degree of quasi-political messaging in PBS children's shows. I can say this because I've watched more hours than I'd like of several of them, but I'd like to focus on on Molly Of Denali. It's a good children's show about an inuit girl who lives in Alaska and…
It's impossible to make self or mind small enough to be safe from regressives.
That's nice, but I'm not looking for news - I already get that from better sources than NPR. I'm looking for good, thoughtful, engaging content .
Much of what I'm describing is in fact non-news content, which I find far more durable information than expiring-on-contact news. Philosophy, history, issues and ideas, language instruction, narrative, amongst others. Again, podcasts and streaming expand your universe markedly. That said, terrestrial radio still has its place, which is depicted well in WNYC's "Divided Dial" series: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcast…
Also, to clarify, my point about non-native sources affording very limited news coverage local to you is salient in that the death of local news services (public, non-profit, or commercial) inevitably leads to opaqueness particularly as to local government, business, and other matters. It's a real loss, and deserves pointing out, however obvious it may be.
This is a giant thread full of people lamenting the demise of public broadcasting so it seems like someone should write the comment that points out that CPB doesn't do PBS programming. They don't develop content. They're a grantmaking organization that manages the distribution of the congressional PBS appropriation. The actual PBS and NPR shows you're familiar with are generally developed and produced privately, and…
Truth. The people who will lose it are the ones still consuming it over the airwaves.
... unfortunately, they're the ones who need it most, but when in America has bad government policy not hit the poor hardest and first?
Given that CBP is only 15% of PBS funding, I’m surprised they don’t start a national fundraising campaign instead. I’d happily donate some cash to keep PBS’s lights on in red states.
Do you subscribe to your local station and have a Passport account? Consider doing that first.
I'm in the SF Bay Area. That's like spraying water at someone that's drowning.
I want a lazy way to send cash and have it go to whichever station needs it to keep the lights on.
>Public is intended to mean "supported by taxes". For you, probably, for me it means "from/for the people".
See my comment below: in usual terms, in Europe “public” means technically “supported by taxes” -which is why most “public” media is most of the time pro-government (bar inertia).
One does not imply the other.
Many European countries have public broadcasters 100% funded by tax money, yet consistently rank among the most impartial and factual media. Them being 100% independent in their reporting, also from the government that funds them, is core to their mission, and they usually have oversight boards to ensure this. That's how it should work in a working democracy. The people decided that a truly independent news source is to everyone's benefit so should be publicly funded.