Conservatives And Rivals Press A Struggling PBS

Corporate underwriters have been less willing to finance PBS programs, which has left the network increasingly dependent on Washington, where Republicans criticize its programming as elitist and liberal.

That's kind of a duh.

The network has also struggled to develop popular new shows.

Gee, the "high brow" cable channels don't seem to be struggling to develop popular new shows.

"The biggest problem we've got is the structure we've got," Alberto Ibarguen, the chairman of PBS and the publisher of The Miami Herald, said in an interview yesterday. "It assumes a lot of government funding, continuing heavy levels of corporate image advertising and no competition. But in the world we're in - the world of increased cable competition, less and less government funding and cutbacks in corporate image advertising - it's a significant problem if that's your business model."

Business model ? Is that what you call it ? Forcing people (tax payers) to pay for something they don't want is a business model ? That's the business model the Mafia uses. Most people would call it extortion or theft. Yeah, that pesky competition thingy Alberto. That's what we like to call Capitalism. Maybe you should move a little to the South if you don't like it. There's a little slab in the Southwest corner of Key West that will point you in the general direction.

New managers at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting had been concerned about a perceived liberal bias at PBS as well as difficulties in fund-raising.

Perceived liberal bias from PBS ? Now where would we get that idea ?It's long past time for PBS to be shelved. There is no reason for the government to fund television programming. "Oh, but where shall we get our high-quality programming from ? Corporate America would never broadcast good programs like PBS !" Tell that to A&E, Animal Planet, BBC America, The Biography Channel, The C-SPANs, Bravo, The Discovery Channels, E!, The Hallmark Channel, The History Channels, The Independent Film Channel, The Learning Channel, The Lifetime Channels, NASA TV, The National Geographic Channels, Oxygen, The Science Channel, The Sundance Channel, The Travel Channel, and WE. They don't seem to have trouble making a profit.
The need (if there ever was a need) for PBS has long since gone. Time to stop stealing from the vast majority of tax payers to fund something they don't want.
Once PBS is dead, we can start to focus on NPR.