It’s pledge season again. Across the nation, public television and radio stations are reminding their viewers that non-commercial broadcasting “is possible only with support from viewers like you.” KQED in San Francisco is one of our nation’s top stations, and I really like flying down to do travel marathons with them, as I have for the last 15 years. With this clip, you can see the action from my seat during an actual break. (We’re nearly done, and my co-host, Greg Sherwood, is just wrapping up the break, thanking volunteers and groups that helped out.) There are three cameras, a floor director, a table full of gifts to fondle, a room full of volunteers hoping to answer lots of phone calls, and my co-host and me. We ad lib it back and forth for about 12 minutes per break, with video “roll-ins” showing off the gifts and reviewing the thank-you packages. It was exciting for me, because this is the first time I’ve seen our new series actually broadcast. And better yet, even though we were up against the San Francisco Giants in Game 3 of the World Series, the phones were ringing like mad. In a good six hours of travel like we did last Saturday, we raise about $80,000 for the station.
In Europe, they dispense with all this, figuring it’s worthwhile and more efficient just to have the government pay for it with tax dollars. In the USA, we do it this way — in a hundred such stations across the country. Either way, I’m thankful people recognize the value of having one place on the dial that treats its viewers as citizens rather than as customers, and broadcasts high-minded and challenging programming.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
I believe only about 15% of public broadcasting’s revenue comes from govt and that can be replaced by people who care enough to contribute if they think public broadcasting will be discontinued. I love the public broadcasting concept myself but if we can’t agree to de-fund even this tiny expenditure I think congress will have no will to deal with our nearly 17 trillion in debt – and that will eventually catch up with the grandchildren and even today’s millenials. It sounds absurd but we may have to give up big bird (plus a few heavy cruisers and hedge fund managers’ bonuses).
I refuse to pay for cable and as a result I have discovered several additional PBS stations that are only available over-the-air. These have become my defaults for watching TV when the usual network fare is tasteless or dull. In addition to two main stations (KLRU-Austin and KNCT-Killeen) I get Create (x2), Q, the Pentagon Channel (being relatively near Ft. Hood) and a Spanish station. Through these I have learned more about my native Texas (Daytripper, Texas Parks and Wildlife among other shows), expanded my musical taste (Austin City Limits, Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour, Music Voyager and Mountain Songs), gotten new ideas for cooking (too many to list), traveled vicariously with Rick, Darley Newman, Joseph Rosendo, Rudy Maxa and others and learned about new and fascinating science and nature discoveries (Nature, NOVA, NOVA Science Now, etc.). I’ve also had the pleasure of enjoying the Brit Coms, the Brit Dramas, Masterpiece Mystery. I support my local stations as much as I am able and am more than happy to have my tax dollars also supporting them. Political sound bites aside, PBS is a worthy recipient.
Definitely, PBS is worthy of support. That is my opinion. But millions feel PBS is not worthy of taxpayers’ dollars. Nor do they believe in Medicaid or FEMA or legalization of marijuana or suppression of assault rifles. We are not so much a nation as battling relatives, each focused upon his or her own needs or causes. It probably hasn’t changed so much in principle as in scale since the days of George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion. The fact that we still exist today is a tribute to something but I can’t quite put my finger on what that something is. (I’m just glad each region or faction in the US doesn’t have its own Dept. of War.)
PBS’ budget represents 0.0022 of the national debt. (Yes, that’s the actual number. It’s easy enough to do the math, although some Americans in red states might find it a little tricky.) If we defunded educational programming, we could wage war somewhere in the world for an extra second a year! A worthy and commendable goal, I’m sure.
The problem with our citizens and politicians is that very few want anything that benefits anybody else. The mantra of smaller government reaches epic proportions UNTIL we need it for ourselves or our families or our companies. Conversely, nobody ever went broke underestimating the propensity of American citizens to vote themselves money from the public treasury. We lack balance and we lack statesmen. But we have plenty of crass politicians ready to sell out. I think it was George Carlin who said if you have greedy, selfish, ignorant citizens, you get greedy, selfish, ignorant politicians. But we all see those descriptors thru the prism of our own beliefs and needs.
Thanks John, I have always been a dumb@ss when it comes to math, science, reading, writing, and just about everything else in life. It wasn’t until now that I realized it was because I live in a predominantly Republican state. If I wasn’t so stupid, I would have known sooner that I need to move in order to increase my intelligence. Goodbye Utah, Hello New York!
The average NPR listener makes $86,000 a year. Most members of the public broadcasting audience don’t contribute. If the audience doesn’t think it’s worthwhile, why should the poor and middle class? While the amount is a small part of the federal budget, every bit helps. It is a big deal to the small businesses who pay higher taxes to fund their competition. There is no constitutional authority for the federal government to fund media organs. There is also a principle involved. As Thomas Jefferson put it “…to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical…”
Why should my tax dollars support wars I don’t agree with? Why should my tax dollars pay the salaries of politicians I didn’t vote for? Why should my tax dollars fund the teaching of intelligent design over evolution? Why should my tax dollars fund anything I don’t agree with?
Nancy, the constitution.?.
What happened to the “UNITED” States of America? I hope you are ready to get out there and build that piece of road that runs in front of your house. Wow no government then I guess we really don’t need a Presidents and representatives either.
I find it annoying that the public television stations I receive use Rick’s pledge programs to raise funds but no longer broadcast his travel shows. A bit of deceptive advertising IMO.
Maybe the pollsters should read RS’s travel blog site to get a sense for how north Americans feel? On second thought, I believe his correspondents might not accurately reflect majority opinion?
Those westerners awakening Wed. Nov. 7, 2012 are now aware Big Bird has survived. Long live Big Bird (but unfortunately the same can’t be said for the other one as Thanksgiving Day dinner approaches).
Good on you for supporting Public Broadcasting, especially after Romney’s comment about cutting funding that would have killed many small radio stations. Tom Tomorrow’s comic with Elmo in chains was similarly effective. Meet negativity with wisdom, truth, positivity and laughter!
Keep it cmiong, writers, this is good stuff.
It seems Elmo may actually end up behind bars instead of in chains.
The American constitution provides for funding the military and paying politicians. It gives the states a lot of lattitude on non-enumerated powers, such as education. Schools shouldn’t use intelligent design to dumb down students. We have the teachers unions and the multiculturalists for that. Jefferson objected to funding non-political agencies or private entities to support a political faction. There is nothing in the constitution that authorizes funding of media. It is inherently unfair to fund one faction at the expense of another. If public broadcasting had any regard for its fellow citizens, it would stop treating them as a captive audience.