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Do you remember the PBS shows your kids watched or the ones you yourself enjoyed? When my son was growing up, PBS shows were his favorites - Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, Sesame Street, Captain Kangaroo, and later The Electric Company. My husband and I never missed Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser or The PBS News Hour. We watched Julia Childs and Masterpiece Theater classics like "I Claudius" and "Brideshead Revisited,"and Mystery's Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Sherlock Holmes as well.
Except for Sesame Street, the PBS News Hour, Mystery and Masterpiece Theater, now called just Masterpiece, these programs are gone, but every Sunday I watch Masterpiece or Mystery's new series like Miss Scarlet and recently an adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall novels and Call the Midwife.
Donald Trump issued an executive order to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the parent company of all local stations. It remains to be seen if he can do that. He believes public television and radio run only far left-wing programs. Maybe he doesn't realize PBS covered all the Presidential debates as well as all major speeches by the candidates. State and local elections also get coverage, so PBS is a valuable source of information for voters at all stripes and all along the political spectrum.
But as Paula Kerger, longtime CEO of the CPB, observed, most programming is for children. This is especially important in rural areas where preschool programs may not be available. Adult programming includes musical offerings, operas, R&B, Great Performances, even Lawrence Welk in perpetual reruns. Series like American Masters cover everything from documentaries on Jews who survived the Holocaust to historical figures like Abraham Lincoln. Last year this program did a documentary on William F. Buckley, The Incomparable Mr. Buckley. NPR, in addition to Morning Edition and All Things Considered, also runs programs both informative and entertaining. Remember Car Talk? And we still have Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, This American Life, A Way With Words.
Without federal funding, public television and radio in Pennsylvania will be in trouble. Oh, not the big stations like Philadelphia's WHYY or Pittsburgh's WQED. These stations get only 7% of there funding from this source. But smaller stations serving rural areas, from WVIA in Scranton to WQLN in Erie, depend more heavily on federal money, 20% and 40% respectively. They might have to reduce their offerings or even close shop completely. And this would be a tragedy especially in rural areas. And if Trump decides to go after charities that sponsor public programming with the kind of taxes he is threatening university endowments, other major sources of funding will be in peril.
The courts may prevent this defunding, but unless Congress is willing to defend our public sources of information, PBS and NPR will never be secure. Time to write or call our US Representatives (Glenn Thompson in Tioga County, Dan Meuser in neighboring counties) and Senators Fetterman and McCormick. Our children and grandchildren are depending on us.
ELLEN A. BLAIS
Mansfield
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom