The Fall of PBS

Democracy Now devoted much of its show today to the efforts by the Bushies to nullify PBS and destroy its underpinnings. Recent studies show that Americans, by and large, are quite pleased with PBS' regular programming, seeing it neither as "too liberal" nor "too pro corporate', despite how many ads now appear at the beginning of shows like Lehrer's News Hour.

But Bush pushed in a new head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting whose first act was to push out Moyers and programming like Moyers' excellent "Now" in favor of dribble (and yes, I mean dribble, as in drool) like Tavis Smiley and FTucker Carlson which offer very little. There was also that silliness about banning a cartoon bunny show because - heaven forbid - they showed a family with two moms.

The new CPB head wants ads - lots of ads - and more "mainstream" (read: Tavis and FTucker) shows that put corporations in a more positive light. God forbid we have one venue where WalMart can't run ads telling us how wonderful it is.