November 3, 1969: PBS is Founded
On November 3, 1969, PBS was created to provide educational television
programming and services that reflect the diverse interests of the
American people.
Today, nearly 90% of U.S. television households tune into PBS member
stations, and we are expanding our public service mission to digital
media. In September 2012, Americans watched more than 150 million
videos across all of PBS’ web and mobile platforms.
See how PBS is serving all Americans at valuepbs.org.Image: Vintage PBS logo
A very happy 43rd birthday to PBS. Still going strong after all these years, and getting flung around in election-year political banter to boot.
Carlson is from the liberal bastion of California, according to Wikipedia. In his formative teen years, Carlson attended a boarding school on the East Coast, then went to college at a small liberal arts school in Connecticut, a state that is essentially one giant suburb of culturally subversive New York City. Carlson’s father worked for the government-subsidized Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as well as the government-funded propaganda outlet Voice of America. Sure, The Daily Caller is currently mocking the Obama campaign for airing an ad in defense of Big Bird, but Carlson has never renounced his father. In an interview with Salon in 2003, when given an opportunity to cut ties with his left-wing roots, Carlson said, “my dad is who I always wanted to be like.”
But that’s not all. Carlson once had his own TV show on PBS, and told Washington Post readers in 2004 that he actually liked his employer. “Everyone I’ve dealt with at PBS so far has been great,” Carlson confessed. “If they hate me for my politics, they’re keeping it secret. I’ve been really pleased.” He worked for other outlets notorious for their non-right-wing views: Esquire, for example, and New York magazine.
YOU WORKED AT PBS!?! YOU COMMIE BASTARD! We know the real reason you stopped wearing bow ties.
We understand why you liked this, newshour. We understand. *solidarity*
In 1991, Barack Obama, then a student at Harvard, stepped into the fray of a major on-campus debate. Obama publicly supported a professor named Derrick Bell, who was at the center of a fight over diversity and the denial of tenure to a black female professor. Bell, however, was a controversial figure for spearheading an academic discipline called Critical Race Theory, which read issues of race and power into a legal context. This video became a major issue in recent weeks, as Andrew Breitbart, who died last week, planned to release this video as evidence of a major gotcha on Obama. But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum … Buzzfeed beat them to their own scoop. A roundup of what happened:
» Allegations of selective editing … overruled: Breitbart’s folks claimed that the clip acquired by Andrew Kaczynski was selectively edited, and that their clip offered details that his didn’t. However, the PBS clip, posted hours later, appears to show the exact same scene, validating Kaczynski’s find. Now, Breitbart’s John Nolte has gone from attacking the veracity of BuzzFeed’s video to attacking editor-in-chief Ben Smith. Kaczynski says that, whatever the case, he was looking for this video long before Breitbart announced his find, totally punching holes in the whole thing. But here’s the thing that really kills it: You could watch this video and not even know it was controversial. (We watched it and saw a guy who looked like he was going to be president 20 years ago.) Perhaps a fitting end for Breitbart, a man whose journalistic legacy was at times flawed.
NPR <3 PBS.
Our new designer Dan shows his love for our public television buddies.
Yes, that is a PBS tattoo. Hardcore. See you Monday, Tumblr.
Sure, this is hardcore. But if you want to be really hardcore, get a NET tattoo instead. Or possibly CBC.
And this is a damn shame. No doubt about it. (via @NiemanLab)
We need to have robust New Jersey public broadcasting, but we need to have it in a way that is not continuing to cost the taxpayers and can be perceived as truly independent from state government.New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie • Describing his plan to have WNET take over public television coverage in New Jersey, as well as to offer up public radio coverage to stations in Pennsylvania and New York. A deal’s already in place. The decision is controversial to say the least — some New Jersey residents are concerned about losing local programming as a result of the plan, and over 100 people will lose their jobs — though they have the opportunity to reapply for similar jobs with WNET. Though officials reassure that donaations raised for public broadcasting “will stay in New Jersey,” this is kind of a crap move if you ask us. These services cost the state relatively little and their benefits are pretty high. And the state wouldn’t be able to get away with this move at all if they weren’t relatively small and adjacent to states with large public broadcasters already. source (via • follow)
Not this $@(& again. Somehow, Sony managed to get itself hacked by another group of hackers who want to cause some drama and security issues for them, proving a couple of things: First, screwing with white-hat hackers, as Sony did, is a terrible idea, and they’ve been learning that lesson repeatedly for a solid month or two. Second, Lulzsec appears to be obsessed with drawing as much attention as humanly possible. In a month, they’ve hacked Fox, PBS, Sony and the contestant list to the upcoming “X Factor” show. Seriously? In it for the “Lulz”? These attacks are way too malicious and dangerous for something so innocuous. source
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
Congrats Tumblr!
Don’t screw this up Yahoo.
In 2007, I was...
I started tumblr when I was at one of the lowest points of...
Public television icon Jim Lehrer’s leaving his anchor post: The guy’s been the anchor or co-anchor of a program like “Newshour” for 36 years. He’ll still remain on the show, but will mostly stay behind-the-scenes. Big ups, man. source
No word on if there’s video this time.
More public-broadcasting-related info worth your time. Note the share of federal funding vs. everything else. Some related stuff here, here and here. (thanks @anglobibliophile, @170million)
…Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio executives earned between $$370,000/year and $1.2 million per year. Regardless of whether or not the non-profit organizations could have found people to work for less money, there is a reasonable question of whether the government should forcibly collect tax dollars from folks earning the median $16/hour wage and feed those dollars to public broadcasting employees earning far more than President Obama.Blogger Philip Greenspun • Noting that PBS and NPR execs do quite well in their jobs. Fascinating perspective, and one that isn’t heard often about the whole PBS/NPR thing. We don’t necessarily agree with stripping their funding, but there is something to be said about how far public broadcasting has come from the days of Mr. Rogers getting a pittance to put together an episode of his show. But on the other hand … let’s not forget about this graphic. And we wonder aloud how much your average executive at a federally-supported defense contractor makes vs. the people setting the strategy for “All Things Considered” and “Frontline.” We’re sure it quickly makes this argument seem silly. (via azspot)
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