View From the Sky

In today's editorial, Politicizing Public Broadcasting, the New York Times follows on yesterday's article about how the Republican head of the Public Broadcasting Corporation has decided to bring more "balance" to public television. "Mr. Tomlinson's goal of expanding the audience for PBS does not include bolstering PBS's balance with centrist programming. It involves pushing public broadcasting over the ideological line to the Republican side, with blatantly partisan programming and the hiring of more Republican partisans to control the corporation."

At the rate they are going, the right wing will move to the point of replacing Sesame Street and Masterpiece Theatre. "(PBS) has faced criticism that much of its programming - shows like "Antiques Roadshow" and 'Masterpiece Theater' - is little different from what can be found on cable television." Of course this ignores a few key points:

• Cable networks, even the arty, liberal ones, are supported by advertising and/or subscriber fees. Public television needs to be immune from as much of the commercial pressure as possible.
• Not everyone in this country receives cable. And, the people most likely to either not receive cable or to receive only basic (broadcast channels) are the ones who are least likely to have cultural and financial exposure to the diversity that PBS endeavors to provide.
• Even those people who have cable do not receive every channel. For example, I can not (even with the full package of available channels) get a number of channels including FX (no Shield) and BBC America (the original Office).