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Fairfax Underground
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
EDITORIAL: McDonnell gives public broadcasting a big bird
Posted by:
Citizen Caine
()
Date: May 12, 2011 06:42AM
EDITORIAL: McDonnell gives public broadcasting a big bird
Wednesday, May. 11 by Staff
http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/editorial_mcdonnell_gives_public_broadcasting_a_big_bird123/
There’s a trademark song that has been a feature on public broadcasting’s show, “Sesame Street,” going back to its original airing dates of the late 1960s, and it goes like this:
“One of these things is not like the other things/One of these things just doesn’t belong,” alternatively sung by the likes of Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Grover and other cute fuzzies, who have been entertaining – and teaching - kids for 40 years.
Perhaps it was the tune going through Gov. Bob McDonnell’s mind as he took his executive pen and drew a line across exactly $424,001 in the final state budget that was earmarked by the General Assembly for educational programs produced by public radio and TV stations in the state.
In one misguided stroke, McDonnell wiped out this year’s proposed funding increase, which public broadcasters use to provide existing and new educational, artistic, cultural and public affairs programs appealing to many audiences. Not just the likes of “Sesame Street,” “Super Why,” and “WordWorld” - but “Nova,” “Frontline” and Ken Burns’ acclaimed “Civil War” series as well.
What was noteworthy about the governor’s action was that the cut was the only line-item veto that he issued before signing the massive $80.7 billion budget. Virginia allows its chief executives to single out items from the budget and have final say.
That McDonnell targeted public broadcasting funding is no surprise: his goal from the outset of the legislative session was to begin a harsh phase-out of any and all state funding for PBS stations in Virginia.
The move is as untimely as it is unwise, given that public broadcasters in our state and across the nation have struggled mightily to continue to provide unique and critical programming to youngsters and adults alike.
For his part, the governor stated his goal was to ensure that “government should not be subsidizing one particular group of stations,” and added “we must get serious about government spending.”
Really?
First of all, the amount the governor cut was $424,000 out of an $80 billion budget, amounting to an amazing taxpayer savings of much less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the state budget. That will surely set us on a course to fiscal austerity in no time.
Second, the governor and his cohorts should realize that public broadcasters are forbidden from playing on the same level playing field (“free market,” as he called it) as commercial and cable stations. As WPVT-TV’s Board Chairman Neal Menefee points out: “Public Broadcasters … are prohibited by the Federal Communications Commission from broadcasting commercials to sustain their operations. Public Broadcasting was meant to (and does) operate without commercial influences to focus on services to communities that are needed and valued by the public.”
Menefee goes on to note that viewers of commercial stations are subject to as much as 14 minutes of commercials each hour of the day, which is anathema to the mission of public broadcasting, and sets that franchise apart as a unique and welcome offering among the panoply of choices on the hundreds of stations we now get on our cable boxes.
“Educational, non-commercial programming that positively impacts the lives of children is found nowhere else but on PBS,” Menefee states, noting that PBS received 15 Daytime Emmy Awards in 2010 for its programs.
Most striking about the governor’s move was its utter hypocrisy on several levels.
A solid conservative bent on protecting moral values, his action at once pulls the rug out from under tame, family-oriented programs in public broadcasting, and instead unwisely elevates tawdry, raunchy and objectionable programs that kids would turn to instead, such as “Family Guy,” “South Park” and “Beavis and Butt-Head.”
Further, as a candidate and now officeholder, McDonnell has made it clear that in addition to transportation, education was to be his focus for his single term in the governor’s mansion. If that’s the case, why would he single out educational TV and radio programming available to all the Commonwealth’s citizens to defund? It simply doesn’t make sense.
The governor, in his veto message, stated, “Such grants are not core services of government.” This is baffling to us. State government already contributes mightily to education, the arts and culture and technology. Surely, education and arts programming via public broadcast fits all three categories.
Interestingly, The Virginian Pilot newspaper noted that right after he issued his veto, McDonnell announced that the state had awarded $4.6 million in grants, tax breaks and in-kind donations to billionaire movie director Steven Spielberg, who is planning a film about Abraham Lincoln to be shot in the state.
We’re perplexed as to how this qualifies as a “core service of government” but funding for films and videos used in state classrooms about American and world history, basic learning and literacy does not.
Finally, if the state is truly interested in bridging the stubborn “Digital Divide” gap between the “haves” and “have-nots,” both online and in other media forums such as television, then continued support of public broadcasting and all it has to offer must be maintained, if not expanded.
For someone who has the smiling disposition of an “Ernie” from “Sesame Street,” McDonnell’s disappointing and pernicious line-item strike has shown him to be nothing less than an “Oscar the Grouch” on this issue. And his line-item veto of PBS state funding belongs at the bottom of the place where Oscar dwells.
Wednesday, May. 11 by Staff
http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/editorial_mcdonnell_gives_public_broadcasting_a_big_bird123/
There’s a trademark song that has been a feature on public broadcasting’s show, “Sesame Street,” going back to its original airing dates of the late 1960s, and it goes like this:
“One of these things is not like the other things/One of these things just doesn’t belong,” alternatively sung by the likes of Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Grover and other cute fuzzies, who have been entertaining – and teaching - kids for 40 years.
Perhaps it was the tune going through Gov. Bob McDonnell’s mind as he took his executive pen and drew a line across exactly $424,001 in the final state budget that was earmarked by the General Assembly for educational programs produced by public radio and TV stations in the state.
In one misguided stroke, McDonnell wiped out this year’s proposed funding increase, which public broadcasters use to provide existing and new educational, artistic, cultural and public affairs programs appealing to many audiences. Not just the likes of “Sesame Street,” “Super Why,” and “WordWorld” - but “Nova,” “Frontline” and Ken Burns’ acclaimed “Civil War” series as well.
What was noteworthy about the governor’s action was that the cut was the only line-item veto that he issued before signing the massive $80.7 billion budget. Virginia allows its chief executives to single out items from the budget and have final say.
That McDonnell targeted public broadcasting funding is no surprise: his goal from the outset of the legislative session was to begin a harsh phase-out of any and all state funding for PBS stations in Virginia.
The move is as untimely as it is unwise, given that public broadcasters in our state and across the nation have struggled mightily to continue to provide unique and critical programming to youngsters and adults alike.
For his part, the governor stated his goal was to ensure that “government should not be subsidizing one particular group of stations,” and added “we must get serious about government spending.”
Really?
First of all, the amount the governor cut was $424,000 out of an $80 billion budget, amounting to an amazing taxpayer savings of much less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the state budget. That will surely set us on a course to fiscal austerity in no time.
Second, the governor and his cohorts should realize that public broadcasters are forbidden from playing on the same level playing field (“free market,” as he called it) as commercial and cable stations. As WPVT-TV’s Board Chairman Neal Menefee points out: “Public Broadcasters … are prohibited by the Federal Communications Commission from broadcasting commercials to sustain their operations. Public Broadcasting was meant to (and does) operate without commercial influences to focus on services to communities that are needed and valued by the public.”
Menefee goes on to note that viewers of commercial stations are subject to as much as 14 minutes of commercials each hour of the day, which is anathema to the mission of public broadcasting, and sets that franchise apart as a unique and welcome offering among the panoply of choices on the hundreds of stations we now get on our cable boxes.
“Educational, non-commercial programming that positively impacts the lives of children is found nowhere else but on PBS,” Menefee states, noting that PBS received 15 Daytime Emmy Awards in 2010 for its programs.
Most striking about the governor’s move was its utter hypocrisy on several levels.
A solid conservative bent on protecting moral values, his action at once pulls the rug out from under tame, family-oriented programs in public broadcasting, and instead unwisely elevates tawdry, raunchy and objectionable programs that kids would turn to instead, such as “Family Guy,” “South Park” and “Beavis and Butt-Head.”
Further, as a candidate and now officeholder, McDonnell has made it clear that in addition to transportation, education was to be his focus for his single term in the governor’s mansion. If that’s the case, why would he single out educational TV and radio programming available to all the Commonwealth’s citizens to defund? It simply doesn’t make sense.
The governor, in his veto message, stated, “Such grants are not core services of government.” This is baffling to us. State government already contributes mightily to education, the arts and culture and technology. Surely, education and arts programming via public broadcast fits all three categories.
Interestingly, The Virginian Pilot newspaper noted that right after he issued his veto, McDonnell announced that the state had awarded $4.6 million in grants, tax breaks and in-kind donations to billionaire movie director Steven Spielberg, who is planning a film about Abraham Lincoln to be shot in the state.
We’re perplexed as to how this qualifies as a “core service of government” but funding for films and videos used in state classrooms about American and world history, basic learning and literacy does not.
Finally, if the state is truly interested in bridging the stubborn “Digital Divide” gap between the “haves” and “have-nots,” both online and in other media forums such as television, then continued support of public broadcasting and all it has to offer must be maintained, if not expanded.
For someone who has the smiling disposition of an “Ernie” from “Sesame Street,” McDonnell’s disappointing and pernicious line-item strike has shown him to be nothing less than an “Oscar the Grouch” on this issue. And his line-item veto of PBS state funding belongs at the bottom of the place where Oscar dwells.