PBS = BAD
Posted by jen April 30th, 2004 in Media Junkie.What I have been saying for YEARS!
Exchange KQED in the article for the call letters of your local PBS station. It holds up.
I will watch HOURS a day of the cable edutainment channels a day, I don’t think I’ve watched even two hours of PBS in a year.
6 Responses to “PBS = BAD”
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The old slogan was “If PBS doesn’t do it, who will?” Well we now have Disney, Nick, History Channel, Food Network, Animal Planet and arguably at least ONE news channel that gives all sides of an issue a fair shake.
Time to defund PBS: in modern America, is no longer serves an unfulfilled purpose.
Well, there was that “Prime Suspect” two-fer these past Sundays, but I don’t think I’ve watched any PBS other than that, either. Sad.
Rather than de-fund PBS, though, why not help PBS move to a shared simulcast on broadcast and cable? It’s not like there aren’t enough stations.
But I really wanted to write because I love the Duran shirt yer gal is wearing!
Personally, I haven’t really watched PBS since they had the first colonial house or something. I loved that show. PBS can go away but someone needs to pick up Sesame Street. All kids should see Sesame Street at least once in their life. Another tangent.. they need to bring back some old school Sesame.
Re: PBS shared simulcast: In NE PA I get three differnet PBS stations… since they get so many corporate sponsors, why not pull the plug on the gov’t subsidies and let them fend for themselves?
Re:Sesame Street.
I never understood the need for a big budget for Sesame street. OK, to keep it fresh, they need a few shoots each year with the celebs that want to do the show (possibly gratis? I don’t really know), but 3/4 of the shorts and Muppet pieces could be recycled for a few years, put into storage, and recycled again.
30 years ago some chef fell down a flight of stairs carrying coconut creme pies — anywhere from 1-10. Big mess. But it was all part of a counting short; does a bit like that really grow so old it can’t be reused every few years?
I agree in general with that article, but I DO watch many hours of PBS. I live in the Bay Area, have cable, and KQED is only 1 of the 3 PBS stations I watch. But KQED is probably the worst of them for local programming, and has been for years - the San Jose station is giving them competition for that lately though. Surprisingly, the PBS station operated by a local college located between SJ & SF has far superior programming on both TV & radio (a damn good jazz station at http://www.kcsm.org/jazz91.html if you’re interested).
Yes, Discovery and H&G and other commercial networks have some good shows that compete with similar offerings on PBS but I wonder if they would have created those shows if PBS didn’t do it first. And in some cases better. But PBS has gotten off track and the cable competition is hurting it more. I’m not sure what all it would take to fix it, but I do think the original vision of PBS still has a place and I hope they find a way back. (the comment above about recycling bits on Sesame St. is a valid idea for cost cutting - kids like to watch the same thing several times anyway). But if they continue on the path they’re on and recycle crap like “Lawrence Welk” (shown on the SJ station!!), they’ll never survive.
So far, the comments sound like they’re from people without children. For adults, I have to agree that there probably isn’t much on PBS that you can’t find elsewhere.
However, I have young children, and when it comes to programming for them I rely on PBS. They could have it on all afternoon if they wanted, and I don’t need to worry about what they’re watching. I approve of all the programs offered. With cable, I found my kids watching some very inappropriate stuff - marketed toward children. We had to cancel our cable for financial reasons, and I haven’t missed it yet.
I don’t expect everyone to agree with me on what’s appropriate. I’ve seen parents take young children to some very adult, very violent movies. I’m not sure which is worse - the ones that look traumatized when they leave, or the ones that don’t.