Conservative columnist George Will just chaps my hide. Like Robert Novak, his arrogance tends to overpower his opinions, most of which are based on sound research. But his recent pontificating that PBS is irrelevant and should no longer be subsidized by government set me fuming.
Never mind that public television’s NEA grant covers a mere 15 percent of its costs. The remainder is of course paid for by the public, in memberships and generous grants from the likes of Bill Gates and others who still find it relevant.
It’s Will’s contention that PBS may have been worth public support in the days when there was nothing on the tube but the Big Three’s laugh tracks, oaters and variety shows. News was a scant 30 minutes, most of which was actual news; not wasted, as in current practice, on a dozen 30-second teasers to keep viewers from hitting the remote before the last commercial.
Will sites the proliferation of cable news and talk shows as reason enough to ditch PBS. In the interest of fairness, I’ve watched enough of them to see that most are tailored to re-inforce opinions already held by their target audience. Hence the popularity of Fox News among conservatives and the rude noises erupting from the left at its self-proclaimed “fair, balanced and unafraid” reporting.
Also mentioned in Will’s diatribe was the monopoly that PBS once had in children’s programming. The heyday of Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers and the Muppets is over, he says. But has SpongeBob SquarePants actually put Big Bird on the endangered species list?.
I think not. My granddaughter is as enthralled by “Sesame Street” as her mother was back in the days when it came to our house through a Zenith 11-inch black and white TV connected to a mountaintop antenna by a half mile of ladder lead. Primitive by today’s standards, but essential for kids with no neighbors to play with and a school district with no kindergarten, much less preschool.
We have cable now, to a half dozen sets, so one kid can watch Sesame Street while the other could conceivably tune in to Nickelodeon or watch tapes or play video games. I draw the line at MTV. And therein lies the difficulty. There’s so much garbage (or age-inappropriate programming) on all those cable channels, even syndicated reruns of programs originally aired after 10 p.m. when kids are presumed to be asleep. You can’t block them all, and even Discovery airs shows that prompt questions from a 10-year-old boy.
If government funding were denied to public television, or public radio for that matter, we would have to endure more pledge weeks, and people who really can’t afford cable would feel more guilt for enjoying free programming. With the federal budget calling for cuts in Medicare and food stamps for the working poor, it may come to a choice between watching cable and feeding the kids. Will seems to think no family is too poor to afford cable, but I’ve seen otherwise.
In areas like Malibu and the mountains where reception is poor, families need cable just to get the networks and PBS. That fortysomething a month could buy enough Jiff, Wonderbread and milk to fill four kids.
Housesitting for my daughter in Montana this week, I was struck by the limitations of modern technology. They live just four flat miles from the center of Bozeman and need no cable to pull local channels. They do have Direct TV, satellite service for a bezillion channels, pay-per-view movies, sports and such. But as many other satellite subscribers have discovered, they can’t receive local TV stations or PBS. I think the ruling is that if you live within 45 miles or so of a transmitter, satellite will not give you those channels. So with a 17-inch flat screen Panasonic, hooked to the Direct TV box and a Go.Video player, I still can’t see “The News Hour.” Oh, I could get Fox News, but face it, Brit Hume is not Jim Lehrer. I settle for “News Night with Aaron Brown” on CNN.
But come Friday night, I realize I’m going to miss witty analysts Mark Shields and David Brooks, “Washington Week” and “Now.” This will not fly.
I retrieve from the garage, you guessed it, an 11-inch Zenith black and white with rabbit ears. No box, no dish, nada. Plug it in and Voila! Jim Lehrer appears, a little grainy, but bright. My Friday night is saved.
I leave the Zenith in the living room and Saturday night I realize it’s Pledge Week. But Montana Public Television is not trotting out old Lawrence Welk, Wayne Dyer and aging rock stars. Instead, at the request of subscribers, they are keeping to their regular schedule with Nova, Nature and all eight episodes of Ken Burns’ “The West, A Montana Perspective.” I watched all of it.
And just in case George Will gets his way, I phoned in a pledge.