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Date: 2006-06-13 07:41 pm (UTC)The problem with the Sesame Street defense is it's a fallacy brought on by cycles of bad Internet chain petitions; anyone who looks into it proves Sesame Street is in no danger. I believe if you poke around, maybe on Snopes, you'll find that the Children's Television Workshop never claimed it was in trouble; some well-meaning chick just said "Save Big Bird" to try and incite people to support funding of PBS and it spiralled out of control. Which is just proof that people regardless of political views are stupid.
Can't say I quite have the sheer venom towards PBS that you seem to exhibit, though I think there is a broad gap between what PBS is and what PBS was intended to be. I like the _idea_ of public broadcasting and community-supported TV but it doesn't work the way it's supposed to, as you point out. And actually, a problem is the owners don't determine the content much of the time. I don't like the idea of them losing funding just because there ARE valuable shows that air on PBS, IMHO, but whether they cut the budget or not, what really needs to be looked at is how it's structured and how it raises funds beyond federal support. PBS could use a rehauling from the bottom up. Heck, this just occurred to me, but maybe its loss of federal funding might cause the producers to get their asses kicked in gear and fix the many things that are broken.
And is it me, or are pledge drives more likely to piss someone off than make someone want to pay money for something? Especially when they pre-empt the shows that are usually on that you actually _want_ to watch for the kind of nonsense like Old Burned Out Folk Musician concerts that suddenly make "A Mighty Wind" more of a testament to the truth than a parody?
Death Quaker
Who actually really likes folk music, but not when she wants to watch old episodes of Doctor Who.