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February 12, 2014 at 8:04 pm #610435
wakefloodParticipantSo, looks like those nutty rich guys who want the rest of America to have neither a secure retirement NOR an impartial Public Broadcast System are being outed.
The plan, obvious to many, has been to pay their owned legislators to defund PBS so that they’ll have to go to their good-hearted corporate sponsors to fund programming. What programming, you ask?
Well, FIRST you strong-arm PBS to NOT produce or show stuff like documentaries about pollution and Wall St. corruption (see Frontline, etc). This is the squeeze. Which works because they need $ to function.
NEXT step is to kindly offer to fund nice, fun programming for whatever propaganda corporate America thinks you need to see!
Recent Example: Pensions BAD, Public Employees BAD, get rid of both!
And don’t forget, you don’t have to even run the propaganda to play this game, all you need PBS to do is to NOT ask tough questions during interviews, NOT invite qualified people with the “wrong” opinions on to respond, etc. It’s the same game they play on the Sunday talking head shows.
But, yeah, it’s all good…
February 13, 2014 at 12:00 am #804318
anonymeParticipantWake, this actually began quite some time ago. During the Bush administration, an insider from the Republican National Committee was appointed head of the CPB. The corporate right has been cut funds for public broadcasting for years; an independent voice is a dangerous one. I’m a former PBS employee, and can tell you that the inside workings at PBS (including local stations) are a very far cry indeed from the public perception of a liberal, enlightened workplace.
I remember hearing about a documentary addressing the issue of domestic violence. PBS refused to air it unless it was edited to include equal time for battered men. That’s a little like giving pedophiles a platform for declaring why sexual abuse is good for 4 year-olds. Frontline has had many programs declined for political reasons.
February 13, 2014 at 12:53 am #804319
dhgParticipantI get razzed by friends every time I say it but our public stations sold out long ago. They are not public, they take corporate funds and do not want to rock the boat. The original idea was a good one but there’s more money on the other side. KCTS runs commercials and those commercials get longer each year. I found it very distressing when, in celebration of so many years on air, they ran little clips of early programs which showed just how small and amateur they were in those days. If only we could have those days back. Hand back the big dollars, give up on the idea of glass and steel production buildings; produce programs that aren’t glitzy but are funded by the public.
February 13, 2014 at 12:57 am #804320
dhgParticipantAnonyme: Equal time for battered men would mean they’re talking to male victims. I don’t think that would be a problem. If you meant to say they had to provide equal time to the men who beat women, THAT would be objectionable.
February 13, 2014 at 1:23 am #804321
anonymeParticipantdhg, they wanted both. And while I agree that battered men should be represented, I respectfully disagree that battered men should be given equal time. This would suggest that the victims of this crime are distributed equally between the sexes – which is not the case. Not even close.
February 13, 2014 at 1:28 am #804322
dhgParticipantOk, very true, I imagine it would be difficult to find battered men and it’s unfortunately ridiculously easy to find battered women but both are victims and so it is nothing like allowing a pedophile a chance to tell his side. Even if they gave the men equal time the message would be consistent: spousal violence is a social issue that calls for social action.
February 13, 2014 at 1:46 am #804323
anonymeParticipantSorry dhg, I still disagree – although I do agree that my pedophile analogy was perhaps not the best choice.
This is not merely an issue of “spousal violence”. Again, that characterization suggests that this is something that commonly happens to men. Domestic violence is one symptom of a larger societal disease – that of pervasive violence against women. But let’s just say for a moment that spousal violence against men was more common. How often does that violence result in severe physical injury, hospitalization, being battered into unconsciousness, and even murder? Equal time? I see this as one more way to marginalize victims and minimize the costs of this crime.
Sorry, Wake! That’s all I’ll say on the topic, didn’t mean to take it off the rails…
February 13, 2014 at 4:37 am #804324
wakefloodParticipantNo worries, as usual these elements are related. Corporatist influence is everywhere and we’re the worse for it.
Remember the 1980’s and 1990’s civic round tables hosted by Fred Friendly? They should run those 24/7 since nobody discusses critical thinking about issues anymore.
Sad.
February 13, 2014 at 7:28 am #804325
metrognomeParticipantI began to question PBS after finding out that the Koch brothers are major contributors; while many PBS programs still seem to be fairly untainted, it’s difficult to know how their decisions are affected when something is cut from a program or the program is axed entirely.
anonyme – I completely disagree with your circular logic; it isn’t all that long ago that the same argument could have been used to deny the existence of battered women because the crime was so underreported (in part because there weren’t applicable laws on the books and in part because police forces were predominantly male.)
While I agree it is highly likely that many more women are battered than men, that is meaningless to an individual man who is being battered and can find no resources to help him. The violence may tend to be more emotional than physical, but long-term emotional abuse can be more easily hidden yet extremely devastating. Maybe if PBS and other sources focused some air time on battered men, more would be willing to come forward.
February 13, 2014 at 8:03 pm #804326
wakefloodParticipantCan I claim to be battered by Anglo-fascism? Some days it sure feels that way.
(Sorry, no disrespect intended to the discussion above. Just a feeble attempt to connect up a slightly unraveled thread??)
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