----------------------------Original message----------------------------
VOX POPULI : Adding something to my earlier posting about calling PBS and
registering your opinions Re: its privatization (i.e. annihilation) as per
Newton Gingrich. Call 1-800-CPB-2190
 
========================Additional comments=================================.
>
>1) I have not seen on the net any responses yet,not necessarily to my own
>message, but to the general theme, the attempt to do grievous harm to the
>Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is a national treasure.
>This disturbs me.Is there apathy or am I missing something? I do hope that
>reactions will start coming in, participatory democracy at work.
>
>2) Some comments made to me personally indicated that opponents of PBS
>criticize it for being elitist and for having a liberal bias. Never mind
>that "elitist" and "liberal" are certainly not four-letter words in my
>vocabulary. Even if they are considered such by others, I cannot, in all
>objectivity, see either as applying to PBS or NPR. Look in detail at their
>programs and you will be hard put to justify those criticisms. Are the
>children's programs, programs on nature, science, arts, movies,etc. of the
>kind that might offend even the staunchest conservatives? Are
>opera,Hercule Poirot or Inspector Morse, Lawrence Welk, Mitch Miller,the
>McNeil-Lehrer report, gardening, ballet,"Mystery!," The Frugal Gourmet,
>painting, sewing,Carmen Sandiego, This Old House, sports, Sesame Street,
>Jeeves and Wooster, travel, Sneak Previews, Newton's Apple,Baseball, the
>Civil War, and on and on, subversively poisoning the American mind?
>Or is it that some programs include history that features too many blacks
>(African-Americans) to some critics' taste? Or deal with poverty? Or
>racial  justice ("I'll Fly Away")?  Just trying to guess. I am totally
>baffled.
>
>3) I caught, this am, on C-Span, some of the CPB hearings.Do try to have a
>look at them. It's an education.
>
>4) The un/de/funding of NPR (radio) is another mystery.Our local station
>transmits on AM and FM. AM has news,talk,wonderful local programs,BBC
>News, Canada-originating news,Sunday programs done by kids  international
>programs. Nothing a conservative might hear should rile him/her. FM has
>loads of classical music as well as other types. Is Mozart elitist? Is
>Glenn Miller liberal?
>5) On the crowded radio dial, here we can hardly get any other classical
>music (or classical Big Band, or classical New Orleans, etc.) music,
>except, rarely, if we can get another PBS station.
>
>6) Yes, there is a strong cultural side to the CPB. Is culture bad for
>America? Does America have so much culture that it is a waste of time
>puttingmore of it  on the air? Should America watch only Hard Copy and the
>like?
>
>7) I have the strong impression (no figures) that the people who work
>bringing us PBS and NPR are paid modestly or little by ordinary standards.
>We get a lot of bang for our buck, and we get the unpaid services of many
>many many volunteers too.
>
>8) Even if we're talking about small cuts to CPB budgets,the economic
>argument is as hypocritical as any I have heard in my lifetime. First, the
>governmental support of CPB amounts to a tiny (repeat and
>shout,TINY)figure compared to others, not to mention the obscenely
>inflated pork-barrels. Second, when some opponents adopt a
>holier-than-thou attitude and state that this money would lessen what
>social services and other programs would get, it is so blatantly a lie, so
>false, so deceitful, so outrageous that you wonder how elected
>representatives and others can stoop.
>
>Random, disorganized thoughts --from the brain as well as from the heart.
>And the eye and the ear.
>