Main article: List of programs broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service Programming
PBS has been the subject of some controversy.
Federal funding cuts: PBS has been subject to repeated attempts to reduce federal funding. On 8 June 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that a key House committee had "approved a $115 million reduction in the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, that could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs". This would reduce the Corporation's budget by 23%, to $380 million, for 2007. A similar budget cut was attempted in 2005, but was defeated by intense lobbying from the PBS stations.. This has been parodied many times on other television shows such as The Simpsons (see Missionary: Impossible). Criticism and controversy
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 [2] required a "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature". It also prohibited the federal government from interfering or controlling what is broadcast. This set up an obvious tension where the government that created the CPB would not be able to do anything about a perceived failure to meet its obligation for objectivity without interfering in some way.
At a more basic and problematic level is how and who should determine what constitutes objectivity and balance when there are massive disagreements over what that would be. There seems to be no consensus or even attempts at forming a consensus to resolve this dilemma.
Conservatives perceive it to have a liberal bias and criticize its tax-based revenue and have periodically but unsuccessfully attempted to discontinue funding of CPB. Although state and federal sources account for a minority percentage of public television funding, the system remains vulnerable to political pressure. Kenneth Tomlinson, former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting who resigned amid controversy, in November 2005 in Baltimore, told PBS officials, "They should make sure their programming better reflected the Republican mandate." Tomlinson later said that his comment was in jest and that he could not imagine how remarks at a fun occasion were taken the wrong way. A report whose results were publicized in November 2005 sharply criticized Tomlinson for the way he used CPB resources to "go after" this perceived liberal bias. [3]
Liberal critics Political/ideological bias
PBS has also spun off a number of TV networks, often in partnership with other media companies: PBS YOU (ended January 2006, and largely succeeded by American Public Television's Create), PBS KIDS (ended 1 October 2005), PBS KIDS Sprout, PBS World (commenced 15 August 2007), and PBS-DT2 (a feed of HDTV and letterboxed programming for digitally equipped member stations), along with packages of PBS programs that are similar to local stations' programming, the PBS-X feeds. PBS Kids Go! was promised for October 2006, but PBS announced in July that they would not be going forward with it as an independent network feed (as opposed to the pre-existing two-hour week daily block on PBS). (See List of United States over-the-air television networks and List of United States cable and satellite television networks.) Some or all are available on many digital cable systems, on free-to-air TV via communications satellites [4], as well as via DirecTV direct broadcast satellite. With the transition to terrestrial digital television broadcasts, many are also often now available as "multiplexed" channels on some local stations' standard-definition digital signals, while DT2 is found among the HD signals. PBS Kids announced that they will have an early-morning Miss Lori and Hooper block with four PBS Kids shows usually around 08:00 (school time, although kids this age usually do not go to school). With the absence of advertising, network identification on these PBS networks were limited to utilization at the end of the program, which includes the standard series of bumpers from the "Be More" campaign.
PBS networks
See PBS Kids.
Further reading
Instructional television
List of DirecTV channels
List of Dish Network channels
List of PBS member stations
List of United States television networks
Lou Stewart, prominent labor leader and PBS board member
Public Radio International
National Public Radio
PBS idents
PBS Red Book (presentation guidelines for PBS programming)
Television in the United States
Time signal
PBS has been the subject of some controversy.
Federal funding cuts: PBS has been subject to repeated attempts to reduce federal funding. On 8 June 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that a key House committee had "approved a $115 million reduction in the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, that could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs". This would reduce the Corporation's budget by 23%, to $380 million, for 2007. A similar budget cut was attempted in 2005, but was defeated by intense lobbying from the PBS stations.. This has been parodied many times on other television shows such as The Simpsons (see Missionary: Impossible). Criticism and controversy
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 [2] required a "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature". It also prohibited the federal government from interfering or controlling what is broadcast. This set up an obvious tension where the government that created the CPB would not be able to do anything about a perceived failure to meet its obligation for objectivity without interfering in some way.
At a more basic and problematic level is how and who should determine what constitutes objectivity and balance when there are massive disagreements over what that would be. There seems to be no consensus or even attempts at forming a consensus to resolve this dilemma.
Conservatives perceive it to have a liberal bias and criticize its tax-based revenue and have periodically but unsuccessfully attempted to discontinue funding of CPB. Although state and federal sources account for a minority percentage of public television funding, the system remains vulnerable to political pressure. Kenneth Tomlinson, former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting who resigned amid controversy, in November 2005 in Baltimore, told PBS officials, "They should make sure their programming better reflected the Republican mandate." Tomlinson later said that his comment was in jest and that he could not imagine how remarks at a fun occasion were taken the wrong way. A report whose results were publicized in November 2005 sharply criticized Tomlinson for the way he used CPB resources to "go after" this perceived liberal bias. [3]
Liberal critics Political/ideological bias
PBS has also spun off a number of TV networks, often in partnership with other media companies: PBS YOU (ended January 2006, and largely succeeded by American Public Television's Create), PBS KIDS (ended 1 October 2005), PBS KIDS Sprout, PBS World (commenced 15 August 2007), and PBS-DT2 (a feed of HDTV and letterboxed programming for digitally equipped member stations), along with packages of PBS programs that are similar to local stations' programming, the PBS-X feeds. PBS Kids Go! was promised for October 2006, but PBS announced in July that they would not be going forward with it as an independent network feed (as opposed to the pre-existing two-hour week daily block on PBS). (See List of United States over-the-air television networks and List of United States cable and satellite television networks.) Some or all are available on many digital cable systems, on free-to-air TV via communications satellites [4], as well as via DirecTV direct broadcast satellite. With the transition to terrestrial digital television broadcasts, many are also often now available as "multiplexed" channels on some local stations' standard-definition digital signals, while DT2 is found among the HD signals. PBS Kids announced that they will have an early-morning Miss Lori and Hooper block with four PBS Kids shows usually around 08:00 (school time, although kids this age usually do not go to school). With the absence of advertising, network identification on these PBS networks were limited to utilization at the end of the program, which includes the standard series of bumpers from the "Be More" campaign.
PBS networksSee PBS Kids.
Further reading
Instructional television
List of DirecTV channels
List of Dish Network channels
List of PBS member stations
List of United States television networks
Lou Stewart, prominent labor leader and PBS board member
Public Radio International
National Public Radio
PBS idents
PBS Red Book (presentation guidelines for PBS programming)
Television in the United States
Time signal
No comments:
Post a Comment