----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I'd like to clear up a little potential confusion among list members. One of our fellow members, Larry Jarvik, has included in his sig an affiliation with the Center for the Study of Popular Culture. There are two organizations having this name. One is the long established and esteemed Center for the Study of Popular Culture, located at Bowling Green University, and begun by Ray Browne, the founder of the Popular Culture Association. I think most of us realize how much we owe academically to this organization and Ray's early efforts to legitimize the academic study of popular culture. The second organization is a conservative think tank located in L.A., which seems to have as its main focus the destruction of the NEA, NEH and CPB. (Of the 150 hits I got from a Lexis search, only a handful did not concern this issue) Mr. Jarvik is head of the Washington office of this organization, and testified at the recent House hearings against CPB, on a panel with representatives of Accuracy in Media, the CATO Institute, CAMERA, Family Research Council, Jones Education Networks, and the NRA. Mr. Jarvik has been described as "one of the most prominent and most durable critics of public television" (NYT, 1/25/95) Needless to say, the folks at Bowling Green are not real happy with this group's choice of name. Maybe in the interests of fairness and truth in advertising, the L.A. group could change theirs? ;) Incidentally, I e-mailed Mr. Jarvik yesterday with a request for a description of his organization, and have not heard back. Perhaps he'd like to fill us in. And I have been quite delighted with the support given to CPB and PBS in response to his comments. Marlyn Robinson University of Texas School of Law [log in to unmask]