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dwmckim
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THANK YOU for your latest article on the danger to PBS' funding. My only quibble is i would have liked it if you mantioned that two other PBS shows, Sid the Science Kid and Dinosaur Train are also Henson shows (and for that matter that all the current regular new Muppet/Henson shows right now are on PBS).
Thanks to webtv's growing ineffectiveness, i can't post responses on the site, so i'll post what i would have mentioned there here instead in regards to Jarrod's comment that the threat has popped up numerous times the last few years and nothing's ever happened...
I can understand why someone outside of the USA would hold that observation. But here's the reality: the previous threats were very real and just because we got lucky before doesn't mean that the same won't happen again. Just the opposite: knowing that they came close to succeeding recently *emboldens* the anti-PBS forces into trying again harder.
Also, in the USA, the extreme right has been rising to power in the form of the Tea Party movement with many of its followers having been elected to Congress in our last election. In the short time since the latest session of Congress has resumed, they're being very active in regards to railroading their extreme agenda into law and many things we thought "would never happen here" are. And these people HATE PBS and NPR. PBS is a target because of its educational merit (the extreme right prefers an uneducated populace) and NPR is high on their "enemies list" because its one of the few news organizations that they haven't as successfully exerted their control over as opposed to the vast array of newspapers and television that is under corporate ownership if not totally a mouthpiece of the right as in Fox News.
In 2011 America, things are not "politics as usual". The threat to PBS/NPR is very real and not to be ignored or taken lightly.
Thanks to webtv's growing ineffectiveness, i can't post responses on the site, so i'll post what i would have mentioned there here instead in regards to Jarrod's comment that the threat has popped up numerous times the last few years and nothing's ever happened...
I can understand why someone outside of the USA would hold that observation. But here's the reality: the previous threats were very real and just because we got lucky before doesn't mean that the same won't happen again. Just the opposite: knowing that they came close to succeeding recently *emboldens* the anti-PBS forces into trying again harder.
Also, in the USA, the extreme right has been rising to power in the form of the Tea Party movement with many of its followers having been elected to Congress in our last election. In the short time since the latest session of Congress has resumed, they're being very active in regards to railroading their extreme agenda into law and many things we thought "would never happen here" are. And these people HATE PBS and NPR. PBS is a target because of its educational merit (the extreme right prefers an uneducated populace) and NPR is high on their "enemies list" because its one of the few news organizations that they haven't as successfully exerted their control over as opposed to the vast array of newspapers and television that is under corporate ownership if not totally a mouthpiece of the right as in Fox News.
In 2011 America, things are not "politics as usual". The threat to PBS/NPR is very real and not to be ignored or taken lightly.
