I've been silent about the matters before the US Congress, the federal budget and the funding of Public Broadcasting / NPR. A buzz of noise on the topic has come from other sources. So, I've been relaxed in my efforts to discover and in turn inform.
The House vote may come today on funding cuts for PBS, NPR and other public media. The cuts are "defang and defund public broadcasting."
Oh my.
Sadly, I think QED is already toothless, by choice. WQED put WQEX into limbo and squandered its responsibility. QED burnt the trust I have in that instution years ago and has done little or nothing to change its tune.
The potential is there to do so much more. But, they fumble. The managers are more interested in do-whop and what is not here anymore. Certain duties are involved in public tv and they are not being upheld. So, I say that pulling the plug is not such a bad thing. I also contend that the public tv elements are in the marketplace and that squashes other indies from doing the same actions.
Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is engaged in a deliberate campaign to bully programmers to produce shows that echo the White House line. His cronies in Congress are slashing funding for the news, children's and cultural programming Americans trust.
I used to trust that programming. They've blown their trust in my view.
Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Diane Watson (D-Calif.) have introduced an amendment that would block Tomlinson from meddling in noncommercial programming. And Reps. David Obey (D-Wis.), Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and James Leach (R-Iowa) have offered an amendment that would restore $100 million in funding stripped out by the Appropriations Committee.
More at Freepress.net/publicbroadcasting.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
You are 100% wong about QED and public broadcasting in general. far from being toothless, these outlets offer more in-depth coverage than any other television outlet. Sit down and watch the Newshour, or Charlie Rose or Frontline, or OnQ locally. They're discussing issues that other media outlet are incabable or unwilling to address in a substantive way.
Sit down and watch WQEX, TV 16. What has happened to that asset in the past 8 or so years? QED fumbled.
Nuff said.
Did you see the candidate debates for the PA Senate 42nd special election?
Perhaps you didn't tune in to that public duty tv effort on QED.
Did you see City Council debates?
What about the County Council debates?
You see -- QED didn't do what its duty. Should have. Didn't. Failure.
The city is now bankrupt. The watchdogs have been sleeping. QED carries the most blame of them all.
Post a Comment