On October 5, 1970, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) was launched. I was very excited to see this new radio and TV system take off for the purpose of providing free news, educational, and entertainment programming over the public airwaves. It did not take long for the PBS channels to become one of the most popular and trusted networks on the air for factual verifiable news, education about science, and children’s programming that parents felt safe letting their kids watch.
It seemed to me that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funded most of PBS, was doing a really good job in guiding the quality of the programming PBS produced. Unfortunately, truthful fact-filled news presented by PBS started to rile up those who were exposed by the honest and complete news stories being presented about them. And they began a Congressional push to defund the PBS Networks. The defund PBS efforts started to have a significant impact to the point that the PBS programming began changing. Due to reduced revenue, commercial ads started to be accepted by PBS stations even though their educational license did not allow them. Although PBS tries desperately to maintain its reputation, truth is fading.
I started to watch the CSPAN channels more than PBS and I noticed a few important points about their policies and funding. Even though the FCC repealed The Fairness Doctrine which required both sides of issues to be presented at the same time, CSPAN continued to have a well balanced presentation.
And I learned that CSPAN is fully funded by a tax on corporations, thus eliminating the need for anything like viewer pledge breaks. No commercials, and no pledge breaks - that is true public service.
Why couldn’t a similar funding system be set up for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting? I think I heard Senator Bernie Sanders once say funding for any people’s issues could easily be obtained through a tiny transaction tax on Wall Street. We are talking about a few cents out of trillions of dollars.
I also remember a suggestion from public advocate Ralph Nader which he mentioned several times decades ago. He asked, “Why do we give away free air time from the public airwaves to corporate commercial entities? They should not be getting a free ride while stealing from us.”
Let the dedicated and independent good people of PBS do their jobs to inform our citizens of the factual news and the wrong doers.