What hath man wrought–and how will man use his inventions? The law that I will sign shortly offers one answer to that question. It announces to the world that our Nation wants more than just material wealth; our Nation wants more than a “chicken in every pot.” We in America have an appetite for excellence, too. While we work every day to produce new goods and to create new wealth, we want most of all to enrich man’s spirit. That is the purpose of this act.
— President Lyndon B. Johnson, upon signing the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 (11/7/67)
Republicans have put funding for public television on the chopping block, wanting to cut it by 25% this year, and eventually do away with it completely. The reasoning given by the committee recommending the cuts was “something’s got to give.” In other words, the budget has to be cut somewhere, and public broadcasting is one of the less-necessary expenditures.
And that would mean something if they were submitting a balanced budget. But they’re not, and one has to wonder if all the other deficit spending is really more important than public broadcasting ($3.1 billion for a mission to Mars, for instance?).
I know there are those that think public radio and television are politically liberal. And they’re probably right. But public radio and television is more than just news programming. Most of WCBU’s day is spent playing classical music; WGLT plays jazz. There are also entertaining shows like A Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, and locally there’s Outside the Horseshoe and the weekly broadcast of the city council meetings. WTVP offers concerts, plays, musical theater, ballet, opera, British entertainment and news programming, documentaries, local sports (Lady Braves), and other local programming such as Illinois Adventure and documentaries on Grandview Drive and Peoria in general. And all these programs are commercial-free.
There’s another thing that public TV offers that’s becoming an endangered species on television: children’s educational programming. Kids programming on network television is dwindling, and none of it is what one would call educational. Meanwhile, PBS regularly offers entertaining and educational children’s programming, like Sesame Street, just as it has for the past 35 years.
And that’s why I find it odd that Republicans are anti-public-broadcasting. I would think that conservatives worried about the dearth of family-friendly programming would be the first in line to support quality programming on radio and television. Why sacrifice all the good of public broadcasting just because a few political programs tilt to the left? I’m a moderate Republican and I wake up to NPR news every morning. While I have heard some biased reporting (it’s inevitable, in my opinion, regardless of whether you’re a conservative or liberal reporter), by far most of the news reports are well-balanced, and opinion pieces are clearly identified as such.
Public broadcasting should be preserved and it should be funded. President Johnson’s argument is still persuasive: how will we use our inventions? We already know what television looks like in the “free market,” and that has its place. But our nation “wants more than just material wealth”; we want “most of all to enrich man’s spirit.” It’s a noble and worthy goal. And that’s just what the arts, educational, and entertainment on public broadcasting provides — and, I might add, provides to everyone on over-the-air broadcast stations.
I encourage everyone to call or write their representatives and ask them to keep funding public broadcasting:
