Big Bird Loving Liberals Go Wild

Hell hath no fury like a liberal spurned.

It is truly amusing, as well as very telling, to watch the left-wing liberals squeal like stuck pigs over reductions in state funding for public broadcasting (PBS). Based upon what I’ve seen in the Roanoke Times of late, I have visions of them rolling on the ground, foaming at the mouth, sputtering “Puh ----puh, puh puh, P – B - S. Not PBS!!!! “

On May 5, the Times ran an editorial (“McDonnell’s final budget shot”) bemoaning Gov. McDonnell’s line item veto of a $424,000 increase in PBS funding for educational programming. Note the word “increase” there. In that editorial, the Times uses the word “cut” five times, while fully admitting that what happened was the elimination of an increase. Regardless of what one may think of PBS, it is instructive to note that in the minds of big government liberals, eliminating an increase is a cut. The editorial goes on to note that PBS in Virginia will still, after the “cut” of an increase, receive $3.18 million of your tax dollars.

Three days later, Dan Casey just goes nuts in his Times column (“PBS cut nothing to crow about”). I don’t want to hear any more of you Liberals trying to denigrate Conservatives with your talk about birthers and global warmers and what-not-ers when you’ve got Casey spouting off in public about the conspiratorial machinations of McDonnell and Republicans concerning the 2012 Presidential election. I follow this stuff pretty closely, and nowhere have I seen or heard anyone in the national media mention McDonnell as possibly running for President. In the Fox News debate of Republican Presidential contenders the other night, McDonnell wasn’t there or even talked about for not being there. I have asked McDonnell personally myself about this, and have been told he has no plans to run. Yet here is Casey claiming that such an insignificant event as a line item veto of $424,000 in the state budget is McDonnell’s opening move in his run for the President. Laughable.

And then the Times really loses it on May 10 by running a cartoon showing heavily armed soldiers (Navy SEALS, not doubt), receiving orders form McDonnell to “take out PBS.” It is also very telling that the Times impugns the motives of anyone who dares to disagree with them by publically saying those people are willing, nay, anxious, to resort to extreme violence. Oh yes, today McDonnell exercises his line item veto authority, as every governor does, and tomorrow he’ll be sending out the commandos to the PBS offices.

This cartoon is highly offensive and I demand an apology from the Times.

Liberals, take three deep breaths and listen to me carefully: Tomorrow, the sun will rise.

In order to fully understand the PBS issue, we must review some history.

PBS was started in 1970 as an attempt to provide additional television programming content that normally wouldn’t be found on the commercial TV stations at that time. This was due to the nature of the TV industry in that era. There was no cable (much less satellite) TV; virtually all TV programs came over the air from three privately owned national networks (ABC, NBC, CBS). These networks were commercial enterprises and were financially viable by means of the selling of on-air commercials. That meant that they were primarily interested in broadcasting programs that a lot of people would want to watch.

It was felt by many that an alternative TV outlet was needed that could carry programs that were not totally dependent on their ability to sell commercials for their existence, perhaps more educational programs. So Congress established PBS and subsidized it.

As a side note, I remember when my family got its first TV. I was about nine years old. The set was large and bulky, and we got a grand total of ------ one ------ channel from an antenna on the roof of the house.

Now, of course, things are much different. We have cable TV, satellite TV, hundreds of channels, the internet, YouTube, HULU, DVD’s, etc. We have Animal Planet, The History Channel, A&E, Discovery Channel, Healthy Living Channel, all of the news channels, etc. ad nauseum.

It is not realistic to now claim that society or our education system cannot, in any stretch of the imagination, continue to function effectively without PBS. The world has changed in the last forty years, and PBS is now an anachronism. If some people want to preserve it, have at it (send your check to --- well, look it up). But please, behave like adults rather than throwing childish hissy-fits. And, especially, don’t tell the rest of us that we have to pay for your favorite TV channel with our tax dollars.