Why throw away something when you can fix it?

Public broadcasting in the United States, when it started, was a form of independent media. Like the BBC, it was to be free from government and corporation influence. In the United Kingdom, although some people think the government has control, as you can see in the video of a BBC host cross-examining Tony Blair, the UK prime minister at the time, it is not. The show did not go off the air, the host did not get arrested, which is exactly how is should be.

Although it may have been created to be a "system free of commercial constraints," what it has become is far from that.

In the US, as we talked about in my Independent Media class, after being criticized for only bringing one sided views into their shows, The Eleventh Hour had a debate-like show, and brought people on the show with ranging views, some that the corporate sponsors probably didn't agree with. The show after that did not last more than six months.


This type of thing also happened with NPR, where analyst Juan Williams was fired because of comments he made about Fox News. This is exactly what public broadcasting is supposed to be against. Public broadcasting is supposed to be a place where people can go to express their views and not worry about getting fired because they express an opinion. That in some ways is a violation of freedom of speech, but because public broadcasting is now almost fully commercialized, free expression of views is no longer a priority.

Yes, public broadcasting services should be pushed to live up to the goals and expectations they set for themselves when they first started in the US. Yes, they should try to take some pointers from public broadcasting in other countries like Britain, but even if they were pushed, in today's society, would that push be strong enough?

In today's society, corporations control every aspect of the business world, and in some ways things outside of the business world. Public broadcasting is a business, but should not be controlled by corporations or censored. It should be PUBLIC views, which is a wide range of views and different opinions.

Public broadcasting should not only be a public service, but also an independent media outlet that is free of commercial funding, ads, and other things. Isn't that why we watch public broadcasting, so the corporate world doesn't try to brainwash us all?

Activists are pressing to defund public broadcasting, but what would this do exactly? If you made public broadcasting go away corporations will just find another way to get their opinions and views out there and endorsed. This will be through other shows like NPR or PBS, but under a different name. De-funding public broadcasting does nothing. However, in my opinion, trying to fix it is a lost cause until government gives corporations less control in society.

It is truly a lose, lose situation, and sad to see something that could be so successful is helping change government and society go so downhill, where in countries supposedly less democratic than ours it is able to be successful .