Why Is Public Television Against Public Schools?

[Judi Lynn]

Published on Friday, April 11, 2014 by Common Dreams

Why Is Public Television Against Public Schools?

by Peter Dreier

You'd think that that public television would support public education, but you'd be wrong. The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) has gotten in bed with the billionaires and conservatives who want to privatize our public schools. PBS has nary a word to say about the big money -- from folks like the Walton family (Walmart), Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Eli Broad, business titan and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Joel Klein (former NYC schools chancellor and now a Murdoch employee), and their ilk -- that has been funding the attack on public schools and teachers unions. They've donated big bucks to advocacy groups, think tanks, and candidates for school boards who echo the their party line.

PBS and its local stations have fallen all over themselves to promote "Waiting for Superman," a documentary film that could easily been mistaken for a commercial on behalf of charter schools. In contrast, missing from the lineups on most PBS affiliates is a remarkable new documentary film, "Go Public," about the day in the life of a public school system in California. The film celebrates public schools without ignoring their troubles. Americans who care about public schools should contact their local PBS affiliates and urge them to broadcast "Go Public."

On PBS, there's a virtual broadcast blackout of major critics of this assault on public education. One of them is historian Diane Ravitch, author of ten books about education, including The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (2010) and Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools (2013). As Assistant Secretary of Education in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, she was a fan of charters and vouchers, but has since recanted her support. Ravitch got a few minutes on the "Charlie Rose Show" last year but has otherwise been persona-non-grata on PBS. (Bill Moyers, whose show is independently produced but which is broadcast on many of PBS affiliates, interviewed Ravitch several weeks ago in a segment called "Public Schools for Sale?&quot .

PBS has failed to report on, much less investigate, one of the most well-funded political campaigns in the last few decades -- the propaganda crusade to disparage public schools and public school teachers. Across the country, a handful of billionaires, most of them with no experience as school teachers or administrators, have orchestrated a powerful crusade to persuade the public and elected officials that public education is a failure.

More:
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/11-7

[elzenmahn]

1. Because Public Television has become a Corporatist Tool...

...just like the rest of the American Mainstream Media.

Look who underwrites - oh, excuse me, SPONSORS - a lot of the shows now on PBS. The Kochs are right up there, along with many other righty shills.

[noel711]

4. corporate tool? No, other reasons...

When congress began to seek ways to cut expenses,
they eyed NPR and Public Television as godless liberal tools.
They cut much of the public funding that goes to NPM (public media)
and thus the networks have taken on
'sponsors' to help pay the bills.

I cringe when I see the ads for Ralph Lauren, and cruise lines on my public network programs,
but its seen as a necessary evil.

As for broadcasting 'Waiting for Superman'- public television often has programming
that seems to play devil's advocate. I don't think they pulling rank or anything...

When congress can get beyond their own interests (doubtful in the current setting)
perhaps the 'public' can go back into Public Broadcasting.

[elzenmahn]

5. I think you're making my point...

...because Congress' interests and Corporate America's interests are now One and the Same, due in large part to Citizens United and other recent rulings. There is almost no separation between the two now.

Which does not bode well for Public Broadcasting, since if Congress and the Courts are now Tools of Corporate America, what else can we expect from a public utility like PBS? You're only going to get programming that caters to their interests - thus, the ads for cruise lines and Ralph Lauren on PBS shows (Let's not kid ourselves - they're ADS), and the broadcasting of agit-prop like Waiting for Superman.

[daleanime]

2. K&R....

[nashville_brook]

3. k and r

[Doctor_J]

6. I don't know anyone who still thinks PBS is anything more than a corporate propaganda organ

not much different than the rest of the right wing media in the US