Public Television is Surprisingly Not That Public

When I think of public television, the first thing I think of is PBS. PBS is a public broadcasting network which is supposed to broadcast shows for the public's interest. When I was little I remember watching "Sesame Street" on PBS or if I was at my grandparent's house it was either "This Old House" or some cooking show with Julia Child. Even at a young age I was able to tell there was something different with PBS compared to NBC or other major networks. The quality of some of the shows was better.

If you think the United States' public television network is great, you are in for a rude awakening.
This graph below compares the U.S.'s funding for public television with 14 other countries and look where the U.S. falls, dead last.

Imagine what public television could do if we our per capita public funding was higher than $3.75.

If that doesn't get you mad, then perhaps knowing that PBS cut out a part of Tina Fey's speech at an award ceremony that contained jokes about Sarah Palin. Check out the video for yourself.

So much for uncensored public media. PBS' excuse that the award ceremony ran too long so they had to cut portions of Fey's speech were ridiculous and like Anderson Cooper said, how convenient that they cut the political portion out of Fey's acceptance speech.

In order to create a better public broadcasting network, we need to start looking at other countries' public network and use them as a starting point. Having only $3.75 go to public broadcasting compared to other countries which rely heavily on public funding is absurd. How can we really still call it the public broadcasting network if it's not funded by the public?