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Boston, Mass...02134!
Author: TriSec
Date: 02/19/2011 12:26:50
Americans of a certain age can still sing it:
"Send it to ZOOM: Box 350, Boston Mass, 0-2-1-3-4!!"
While a friend remains fluent, I have sadly lost the ability to communicate in Ubbi-Dubbi. However, I can still do the Zoom "arm flip". (only it hurts now...must be getting old.)
Listen, you know I try not to toot Boston's horn most of the time, but as far as PBS goes, we totally rule.
Do you watch cooking shows? The entire genre was invented here. Does the name "Julia Child" ring a bell? How about home improvement shows? "This Old House". (And it's spinoff, New Yankee Workshop.) The list goes on and on and on...
Victory Garden
Arthur (and his friend Buster)
Between the Lions
Frontline
Nova
Curious George
Antiques Roadshow
Masterpiece
Carmen Sandiego
And while the most iconic of them all, "Sesame Street" is not a Boston production, Big Bird himself is a native of Waltham, MA. (Carroll Spinney)
Millions of American children (and their respective adults) have spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours watching these programs. And despite the incessant fundraising, that only accounts for a small portion of the overall operating budget. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting gives a significant amount of money to keep these programs afloat. But all of that is going to go away if the Republicans have their way.
I've spent some time this morning googling why the Republicans hate PBS. The most succinct analysis comes from this column.
But there's another aspect to this as well. I don't think there are any purely rural bloggers among us, so we all live within reach of one or more public stations. Public stations need a lot of infrastructure to stay on-the-air, and the larger "hub stations" need hundreds of staff to consistently produce the quality programming that they do.
Here's the WGBH building in Boston:
That's a brand-new building. During the last 5 years or so, we watched that rise alongside the Mass Turnpike, and WGBH moved in during the height of the recession 2 years ago. The point being, of course, that radio and tv stations need building, infrastructure, maintenance...and the stations themselves contain hundreds of jobs. Cutting the funding cuts these jobs out of the economy, too.
But like the man says...."So be it". No Public Broadcasting, No more quality programming, and No more jobs. You're doing a heckuva job there, Boener!
"Send it to ZOOM: Box 350, Boston Mass, 0-2-1-3-4!!"
While a friend remains fluent, I have sadly lost the ability to communicate in Ubbi-Dubbi. However, I can still do the Zoom "arm flip". (only it hurts now...must be getting old.)
Listen, you know I try not to toot Boston's horn most of the time, but as far as PBS goes, we totally rule.
Do you watch cooking shows? The entire genre was invented here. Does the name "Julia Child" ring a bell? How about home improvement shows? "This Old House". (And it's spinoff, New Yankee Workshop.) The list goes on and on and on...
Victory Garden
Arthur (and his friend Buster)
Between the Lions
Frontline
Nova
Curious George
Antiques Roadshow
Masterpiece
Carmen Sandiego
And while the most iconic of them all, "Sesame Street" is not a Boston production, Big Bird himself is a native of Waltham, MA. (Carroll Spinney)
Millions of American children (and their respective adults) have spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours watching these programs. And despite the incessant fundraising, that only accounts for a small portion of the overall operating budget. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting gives a significant amount of money to keep these programs afloat. But all of that is going to go away if the Republicans have their way.
I've spent some time this morning googling why the Republicans hate PBS. The most succinct analysis comes from this column.
To be frank, the GOP just doesn’t like publicly funded or subsidized programs – unless the beneficiaries of public funds are very large corporations or very wealthy people who are oppressed by taxes, regulations, and labor unions. After all, they don’t really mind giving huge tax breaks, subsidies, and special inside deals to large corporations like big media companies or Wal-Mart.
While the Republicans claimed that fiscal problems required that cuts be made (no mention of repealing any tax cuts for the rich) and that they weren’t doing this out of ideological motives, the record is clear. Republicans have historically attacked public television and National Public Radio for not advancing biased views that slant to the political right.
Gingrich led the charge against public TV because it was a symptom of 'big government.' Jesse Helms took on the purple TeleTubby (Tinky-Winky) because Helms thought he was gay. More recently Republican-affiliated groups again criticized PBS shows for advancing the 'homosexual agenda' or for presenting less-biased views about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
But there's another aspect to this as well. I don't think there are any purely rural bloggers among us, so we all live within reach of one or more public stations. Public stations need a lot of infrastructure to stay on-the-air, and the larger "hub stations" need hundreds of staff to consistently produce the quality programming that they do.
Here's the WGBH building in Boston:
That's a brand-new building. During the last 5 years or so, we watched that rise alongside the Mass Turnpike, and WGBH moved in during the height of the recession 2 years ago. The point being, of course, that radio and tv stations need building, infrastructure, maintenance...and the stations themselves contain hundreds of jobs. Cutting the funding cuts these jobs out of the economy, too.
But like the man says...."So be it". No Public Broadcasting, No more quality programming, and No more jobs. You're doing a heckuva job there, Boener!
