Monday, March 10, 2014

and the support of "viewers like you"?

Passed along in email this morning was an interesting article about the funding that the NewsHour receives on the Public Broadcast Service. The article is entitled, "After pledging transparency, PBS hides details of new deal with billionaire owner of NewsHour."

The article seems to provide more questions than it does answers, but the questions are interesting enough as it pokes and probes the editorial integrity of a program that bills itself as being in the public interest... journalistically squeaky clean.

The questions seem to have some merit based on an earlier New York Times story saying that WNET planned to return a $3.5 million grant for a pension series.

I can't tell to what extent any of this dovetails with my sense that the NewsHour has become lethargic and unimaginative with its parade of same-ol'-same-ol' talking heads from eminent institutions saying precisely what I expected them to say. Where's the off-the-wall angle or refreshing appreciation? Who knows, maybe it's just me, but I do know I tend to shy away from what feels too much like earnest pablum.

1 comment:

  1. I've always been a fan of the pacific radio network, kpfa in Berkeley, kfcf in Fresno, maybe a dozen outlets in the america, kpfa.org online. They call NPR national petroleum radio and PBS petroleum broadcast system.

    You may recall this quote from CIA director William Casey back in '81... “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”

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