Quick Headline - PBS
PBS Asks for More Funding, Federal Gov’t Refuses: “They’ll Just Spend It on Drink”
Crystal City, VA - The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is struggling to stay alive. A bad sign is the year it was founded: 1969 battled for nought against the 1970s, which obliterated ‘69 and the rest of its decade from the metaphorical map of years. And without a pick-up in federal funding, PBS could face the same end. “Our budget’s been reduced by 23% this year,” said Henry Becton, Jr., president of WGBH, the Boston PBS station. “We’re fighting for our lives here.”
“We’re not giving them any more money,” Claudia Puig, Corporation for Public Broadcasting board member, insisted. “They’ll just use the money to buy booze. Just ignore them and keep walking. Giving them cash only hurts them more.” Asked if there’s anything that can be done for PBS, Puig said that they’ve tried the tactic of saying to PBS, “We won’t give you money, but we’ll buy you some food.” “Well, of course, they don’t go for it and they say that that won’t help them. Well, that proves that they wouldn’t use the money for food at all. They’ll be at Chuck and Dan’s Liquors buying Mad Dog in no time,” said Puig.
Without additional funding in the forseeable future, station execs have indicated that they may have to someday soon shut down the network that has brought “NOVA,” “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood,” “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” “The 18 Towers of Westerchershire Abbey (14-part documentary),” and “By Jove!” among others, to America’s living rooms. Rumors in the industry indicate “Sesame Street” may try to continue production under the HBO umbrella. “It might actually be better. HBO will allow us so many more options in terms of not censoring language, we can have more complex story lines, grittier subject matter,” said Caroll Spinney, star puppeteer on the popular PBS program.
