PBS vs the Mitt Menace: Help save Masterpiece Classics

[_moksha]

Mitt vows to cut the PBS budget. Is this part of the conservative agenda (Bcspace would include Mormon in that agenda) that you would support? Such a move will lead to lead to game shows on PBS. Will you stand for programs, where they vote a member out of the Yale Skull and Bones Society each week, in order to display the moral imperative of dog eat dog? Set giant anacondas loose in Independence Hall on Saturday mornings to compete with the commercial network's children programming?

[_LittleNipper]

Mitt vows to cut the PBS budget. Is this part of the conservative agenda (Bcspace would include Mormon in that agenda) that you would support? Such a move will lead to lead to game shows on PBS. Will you stand for programs, where they vote a member out of the Yale Skull and Bones Society each week, in order to display the moral imperative of dog eat dog? Set giant anacondas loose in Independence Hall on Saturday mornings to compete with the commercial network's children programming?

I feel that the arts are the voice of the people and not government. As religion is not a part of the State, so to art is a spiritual entity that should not be a pawn of the government. Private donations that are not taxed are the best way people can help the arts and entertainment industries.

[_EAllusion]

While I love PBS/NPR, I strongly oppose coercing people to fund the artistic preferences of others, which is what I consider government funding of these media outlets to be. I fully support ending their funding.

That said, funding for PBS is such a drop in the bucket of the in the overall budget that eliminating it barely matters as far as ordering the fiscal house is concerned. It's like promising to turn in a bag of aluminum cans to the recycling plant as your plan to deal with 20,000 of annual credit card debt. To offer it as the only concrete example of offsetting budget balancing measures is ridiculous at best and disingenuous at worst, especially when you consider the same person is promising to increase military spending. That eats up 1/5+ of the budget. To carry over the previous analogy, it's like in addition to the recycling plan, you also plan on getting a new car.

It's a low priority, and I think it is picked more because PBS is perceived as being liberal by conservative groups than out of significant princple or fiscal concern. I would oppose cutting their funding if it was merely part of an ideological attack on liberal interests under the guise of budget savings that do no such thing. If it's part of broader fiscal reform that is done in a fair, meaningful way, then I'm all in favor of it. I'd be very concerned that a fully Republican government will offer bills that try to strike at planned parenthood, PBS/NPR, etc. without providing the budgetary discipline they campaign on, but always spectacularly fail to deliver.

[_cinepro]

I'm disappointed that Romney even brought up PBS since its draw on the federal budget is miniscule.

And in case anyone hadn't noticed, PBS gets a lot of money from corporate sponsors and viewers like you. If the federal funding was pulled, I suspect most PBS programming would continue in some way. Not to mention that there are a host of other cable channels that now provide programming similar to what PBS strives for. This isn't 1968 when there were only 5 stations in most towns.

It would have been great if Romney had put forward some actual meaningful plans for cutting government. Starting with defense spending.

[Guest]

It's not just arts and Sesame Street: PBS/NPR seems to a do a better job than any other single media outlet of educating its adult audience on news and current events.

This report is a little old (I've seen newer ones -- if I have time later I may try to dig them up), but it will serve as an example:

http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Iraq/IraqMedia_Oct03/IraqMedia_Oct03_rpt.pdf

In short: people who relied on PBS/NPR for news about the Iraq War held far fewer misconceptions than those who relied on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, or print media. The report is worth a look, if for no other reason than to marvel at the misconception-rate of dedicated FOX viewers.

ETA: here is one of the more recent studies I was thinking of. It shows PBS/NPR viewers as being relatively well-informed (though the difference is not so clear-cut as in the study I linked above). It once again shows that FOX viewers tend to be among the most misinformed (it's actually worse than that: the most misinformed respondents were those who watched FOX the most).

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/dec10/Misinformation_Dec10_rpt.pdf

[_krose]

I'm disappointed that Romney even brought up PBS since its draw on the federal budget is miniscule.

The yearly amount given to PBS is equal to 6 hours of the Pentagon's current yearly budget, which Rommy proposes to substantially increase.

Good work.