Public Broadcasting question ...

[ColbertWatcher]

Earlier I posted a poll asking what people hope the Obama Administration will do and one of the respondents mentioned the arts and it got me thinking of PBS.

It is my hope that PBS's budget will stop being cut in half.

Now I ask you:

What type of PBS show is your favorite?

[begin_within]

1. American history specials like "Cadillac Desert" and Ken Burns' films are what PBS does best

[ColbertWatcher]

2. "Civil War" changed the way people do documentaries. n/t

[napi21]

3. There are several programs on the weekend here that I never miss.

America's Test Kitchen, & Cooks Country on Saturday, and NOW, & Bill Moyers on Sundays.

I've seen lots of other shows on PBS, but those are my favorites!

[amerikat]

4. I voted other. Meaning all of the above.

Moyer's, Nova, Front line and my local stuff like NY Now, Hidden Adirondacks, farm to table, etc.
all are head and shoulders above commercial tv.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. What's interesting is how many shows that are on commercial TV ...

... started out on PBS.

Siskel and Ebert started on PBS, History Channel copies Ken Burns' Civil War.

All copied from PBS shows.

[amerikat]

7. Ain't nothin like the real thing baby......

way better than commercial tv.

[defendandprotect]

8. PBS is now "commercial" TV . . .

[Enthusiast]

13. Me too. Those are all

excellent. I had no idea about The Adirondacks. Commercial TV becomes more lame every day.

[elocs]

5. I don't have "a" favorite because I have watched all of the choices, even children's programming.

In fact, I started college in 1970 when PBS first started and we used to have a blast sitting around watching Sesame Street in the student union and laughing and laughing over it (Mr. Tree, this is your life). It always amazed me in college how such ordinary things on tv became so funny when you watched them as a group of people.

[FatDave]

9. Tough choice among arts/science/current events

Eventually went with arts.

[defendandprotect]

10. We need to get rid of PRIVATE "Corporation for Public Broadcasting" . . .

and all the right wing control over public radio/TV ---

the guy who heads up the NPR radio is very right-wing . . . there was just

an article on him here at DU. He did propaganda radio for government.

Meanwhile, re PBS . . . for more than 20 years the oil companies have been co-opting

what was left of the network -- often called "Petroleum Broadcasting Company"--!!


GOP gutted funding and that's what put them on the "fund raising" which turns many

viewers away.

We need to do this the way they do it in other countries -- everyone pays --

no corporate involvement. Many do it with yearly licenses.

That's the only way you're going to get the real "news" and the shows that you want.


PS: I'm sickened by the quality of the shows that have replaced Sesame Street --

I'm not gay but I love POV and "In the Life" -- but rarely find them cause if they're

even on it's in the wee hours of the morning. I'm not sure they are on any more it's

been so long since I've seen them! PBS . . . keeping religious fanatics happy!

[ColbertWatcher]

14. It would be interesting to see what would happen to cable companies ...

... with a yearly TV license in Merka!

LOL!

[defendandprotect]

18. The whole cable thing was also a scam . . .

Cities could have invested in it and made it public.

Many people cashed in on it -- and now consumers are paying and paying and paying

-- for nothing!

[jannyk]

11. Have to be an 'Other', 'cause I watch 'em all! nt

[4lbs]

17. Me too. Well, except for the children's programming.

:D

[Enthusiast]

12. I clicked *other*

I like the science, entertainment, current events-Moyers and history.

[EFerrari]

15. American Experience is good except when they strangely replay one

episode over and over like their GHWB episode which has been on 150 times in the last few weeks here. For a while, I thought he'd died or something.

[defendandprotect]

19. Was it pro or con? Did it mention Nazis?

[AsahinaKimi]

16. Though I like Nova..

I have always liked the Science and History programs on PBS. As a kid, I loved the science stories about dinosaurs, and interesting things about history. Civilizations..The Great Wall of China, Finding a Wooly Mammouth in Russia, The Himalayas..Nepal and the Buddhist monks there. Animals in Africa and Australia, All wonderful programs on sea creatures under the ocean. Today I don't own a TV. But if I did, I would be tuned into the Discovery Channel, and History Channel and all the PBS programs I could find.

[defendandprotect]

20. Was it sufficient to advise the public of the imment threat of Global Warming . . .

a fact successfully hidden from the public over the past 40 years --