One of the more memorable moments from Wednesday’s debate came when Governor Romney doubled down on his pledge to cut federal grants to PBS. Bethany has already spoken to the notion that Romney doesn’t really want to kill Big Bird. And I certainly agree with Bethany that Sesame Street is a model program, one which brings in profit which allows PBS to fund other programs. That’s the way PBS should work. Nevertheless, Paula Kerger, the CEO of PBS, has already pushed back on Romney’s comments. “With the enormous problems facing our country, the fact that we are the focus is just unbelievable to me,” Kerger told CNN. “This is not about the budget, it has to be about politics.”
Actually, it is about the budget and about waste. Certainly, I grew up watching Big Bird. And, when I was 5, I also enjoyed the Electric Company, though when I see clips now, 35 years later on Hulu.com, I wonder what the heck I was thinking.
It just seems hard to believe that PBS feels it lacks money when it takes what little it receives to start websites and programs that compete directly with private initiatives. Take, for example, “Tehran Bureau.” PBS sells this often-conspiratorial website as providing an independent source of news about Iran. That’s fine. But, isn’t that what www.iranian.com and www.payvand.com have also long since done? The politics between Tehran Bureau and Iranian.com aren’t that different and, indeed, share some of the same contributors. Why on earth do Kerger and her associates at PBS believe that it should be their mission to fill gaps which the private sector filled a long time before?
Now, I don’t want to pick on Tehran Bureau. It’s just the example I know because I tend to follow the Iran-interest websites more than others. I suspect that this sort of duplication is the rule rather than the exception. Simply put, taxpayer money should never be used to duplicate what already exists (several times over) nor should it be used to try to out-compete or to try to beat with private enterprise.
What's really "unbelievable is that this (Kerger) fool thinks that "we are the focus" simply because Romney happened to mention PBS instead of the ten-thousand other dollar-devouring protection rackets that the Left is committed to funding, as the saying goes, "with other people's money." You just KNOW she's planning a fundraising-letter-cum-political-stink-bomb because PBS was mentioned instead of the Federal Mohair Support Program. What colossal hubris, as if she and her fellow self-entitling wastrels at PBS are especially in Romney's crosshairs or are anything more than a footnote. n nKerger and her inflated sense of self-importance clearly intend to dine out for years to come on Romney's throwaway line about what federal programs are throwaway-able, which DEFINITELY includes PBS. The Federal government IN THIS COUNTRY has no business whatsoever owning a television or radio station, for the simple reason that such institutions must inevitably become organs of government propaganda, as they always have here, there, and anywhere they exist on earth. NPR is a journalistic disgrace. Its public-affairs division spews paeans to government dispensations, which include a chunk of their budget, six hours a day. The other 18 hours of programming are classical music—listened to by the salt of the earth, don't you know—and folk music alà Peter, Paul, and Mary. It truly is "unbelievable" that taxes exacted from Packers' fans subsidize broadcasts of Don Giovanni! I have nothing AT ALL against Mozart, but the audience for classical music in this country consists of people who are well able to pay for that sort of thing themselves. And if it turns out that they don't care to, if people with champagne tastes do not care to support their preferences without people with beer pocketbooks chipping in, too, well, then the hell with the whole stinking mess.
Well said!!!
It would be good for the whole lot of them at National Palestine Radio to get dumped on the streets and have to fend for themselves like the millions of others who have been conned into believing a liberal arts degree guarantees them a right to make a living bashing the Israelis and those who actually work for a living.
If Big Bird can't be cut, then this country is in bigger trouble than I thought!
Exactly! And especially when Big Bird is doing just swell. In fact Big Bird would be a billionaire even if he didn't get a nickel from Uncle Sam. Big Bird clucking that he needs more money is like Obama complaining that he needs more attention. n nBesides, I would have thought that the only truly big "Big Bird" in this country is the American Eagle on the Great Seal of the United States. Why not pay HIM a little more respect by dropping Big Bird from the welfare rolls. n nSesame Street's bird, I've always thought, was inspired by an old Disney character, a stork or a crane or a something or other called Gyro Gearloose. Whatever Big Bird is, it's past time he flew south, long past.
They think that by criticizing Romney for wanting to fire Big Bird, they can cover up the fact that Obama laid an egg at the debate.