The Furious Spinner

As most of you have probably heard, the right is in full assault mode on PBS. The head of the CBC which doles out money to PBS is headed by Ken Tomlinson who claims PBS is not balanced. The right accuses all media of being liberal, but they have been going after PBS for years by trying to cut the funding to PBS through Congress (who allocates the money). The right idealogues say PBS is unbalanced because it is not a propaganda machine for the right. According to them, the only news balanced news is the news that comes out of their propaganda machine: The Fixed Network, i.e. Fox. When I listen to the news, I want it to be the news, not an editorial. I hate it when I can tell the political leanings the person reporting the news.

I have noticed in the last six months that PBS has used phrases in news stories which are very definitely "right." Of course, right this moment I can't think of the particular news stories, and I apologize for that. I remember being surprised at the time. They were doing a pledge drive for our PBS recently, and I didn't give a penny. I figured I wasn't going to send any of my hard-earned cash to an institution that was soon going to go the way of all our other (big) media outlets. It seemed as though they were just rolling over and letting Tomlinson have his way with them. However, I may be wrong. I hope so. Bill Moyers is not sitting on the sidelines during this fight. As always, his response to the accusation of bias and this attempt to kill PBS is reasoned, heartfelt, and well-considered.

I was a liberal arts major in college, and I have made fun of my liberal arts degrees for years. I've always said a liberal arts education has no practical use. However, the impracticalities of it have been gorgeous! You've heard the expression, "Do the right thing." I've said it. I've thought it. But what is the "right thing" to one person may not be the "right thing" to another. I like the idea of doing the beautiful thing. We almost always know what the beautiful thing is. Think about it.

Bill Moyers writes, "A liberal education . . . nurtures the moral imagination. I believe a liberal education is what we're [Public broadcasting] about. Performing arts, good conversation, history, travel, nature, critical documentaries, public affairs, children’s programs—at their best, they open us to other lives and other realms of knowing....When we succeed at this kind of programming, the public square is a little less polluted, a little less vulgar and our common habitat a little more hospitable. That is why we must keep trying our best. There are people waiting to give us an hour of their life—time they never get back—provided we give them something of value in return. This makes of our mission a moral transaction. Henry Thoreau got it right: 'To affect the quality of the day, is the highest of the arts.'"

Well, I'm off to try and affect the quality of my day.

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