Greetings and Salutations..

On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 04:55:12 GMT, "Lew Hodgett"
wrote:


"Randy" writes:

Or, you could let your dollars do the talking and donate with a
dedication for what ever show you want to see.

I absolutely refuse to donate money to PUBLIC television/radio, what ever.

The operative word is PUBLIC, let them get their money from the PUBLIC
trough.

Just my thoughts.

That is a problem, actually, since the trend has been to CUT
funding for NPR, in spite of the fact that it is a drop in the bucket
of the flood of money that the Feds hose away. It seems like the
Republicans get in, and cut funding...(because the medium is too
elitist, or, biased or whatever) then, when the Democrats get in,
they either continue the cuts, or, conveniently forget to try and
restore funding.
It seems like most of the attitude now is "If it has public
support, then, it should be able to get enough funding from private
sources to survive". Now, the Kroc estate pumped a chunk of cash
into NPR, and, while it was one of their smaller bequests, it was
still a great and helpful thing.
However, that did not help our local NPR stations...that was
only applied to the National organization. The fundraising drives
that annoy us once or twice a year are there because Federal funding
for local stations has dropped a huge percentage. IT costs a chunk
of change just to keep the transmitter on the air, and staff to
keep the station going, much less to produce content to add to the
mix.
The question is now, and, always has been, "how important
is the alternative programming provided by Public Radio/TV stations
to YOU?". If it is important and adds to the quality of your life,
then, each of us should take on the reponsibility of helping keep
it going on that local level.
I, for one, think that the content provided by the public
broadcasting stations available to us does, indeed, add an
important alternative view to our lives. Some folks feel that
the proliferation of channels available on cable and other media
have filled the niche that used to be reserved for NPR stations.
WHile there is some validity to that view, I don't think that
it is true enough that Public stations should disappear entirely.
A vast majority of the programming available on the alternative
channels is profit motivated, and, constrained by the same rules
that have made broadcast television such a vast wasteland.
As a small example...Ken Burn's Civil War series, which
is probably one of the most evocative and complete examinations
of that period of American history was not funded by a cable
channel...but by Public Broadcasting. I suspect that if it HAD
been done by a commercial entity, it would have been shorter,
had a lot more "eye candy", and, far less interesting. It was
not "commercial"...but it was a great success. There are many
other examples of programming which would be difficult or
impossible to do on a commercial channel, but, which are
supported by Public Broadcasting.
By the by..."supporting public broadcasting" does
not simply mean writing a check, although that might
be the easiest way. To keep this from being TOTALLY off topic,
one of my contributions a few years ago was a toy, wooden
pickup truck that I made. It was used as a premium/thankyou
gift for one of the generous contributors, and, was quite
popular. Most PBS stations do this sort of thing, and,
would be more than happy to take an item for auction,
or as a premium...Every little bit helps.
Regards
Dave Mundt