----------------------------Original message---------------------------- A good example of the pro-status-quo bias of public radio came last spring in the midst of the health care (lack of) debate. Ray Suarez on Talk of the Nation refused to acknowledge callers who were suggesting single payer, saying that the debate had already moved beyond that option. Of course the debate, as defined by the news media like NPR, had never even considered that option even though millions of people were pro-single payer. Obviously I'm not suggesting the NPR was the sole determinant in defining the issue, but they do NOT have an inherently progressive bias as many would think or would like to think. Compared to CNN, perhaps they are a little more left, but I think they simple create an illusion of being left, thereby defining the left margin of public debate somewhere in the center of the true spectrum. Charles wrote some differences between public & private media, most of which are simple idealized pipe-dreams (or nightmares). Public broadcasting is underwritten and nutured by corporate America - they are not about to say anything that might cut off that flow of money (i.e. serious critique). The notion that because PBS shows high culture stuff makes them good & liberal while the networks show "shit" contributes to the problems of current media. Watching opera or overwrought documentaries just allows the educated middle-class to feel that the money is in the right hands. There's more progressive critique on one episode of Roseanne than on one week of PBS. The fact that Roseanne is popular allows the show to be critical; PBS cannot critique the powers that be because they rely on charity, not "ratings" (although don't try to say that PBS doesn't try to push ratings to it's corporate sponsors). I'm not saying that we should cut public funding, nor am I echoing sentiments from the 30's when the FCC said that commercial broadcasting was more of the people than public broadcasting because commercial stations will give people what they want to see to make a buck. I am saying that we should stop perpetuating the mystique that PBS is liberal good programming and see them as just as much of a PR wing for corporate America as any other network. Sorry to rant. -j ******** jajasoon tlitteu ([log in to unmask]) "Academic training was instrumental. You have to understand the language of society before you can start stretching and subverting it and ripping and tearing it and burning it and watching the plastic drip on the ants."