NPR and PBS kind of stink, but...

This morning, I signed one of those petitions and composed a message to Congress requesting that they try to maintain funding for a media outlet held in the public trust.

Dear Congress,
Despite the strenuous attempts by NPR to over balance its position toward the right-wing of American political culture—which makes their coverage of public policy dishonest—I still believe that there is a place for publicly supported media in this country.

In the future, there will be a time when most Republicans wont be venal, corporate shills and most Democrats wont be afraid to not be venal, corporate shills. Therefore, when that time comes, I would like there to be a media outlet that can function as a steward of public information and an advocate for citizens and citizenship—not just a vanilla alternative to the corporate media monopolies of GE, News Corp. and Disney.

Please retain the funding for NPR and PBS.

Sincerely,
Patrick

That was actually satisfying.

UPDATED:
On Saturday, I posted this for about 10 minutes, then pulled it down. I was conflicted.

NPR and PBS aren't terrible—just sad. They're trying to hold on to a journalistic and editorial model that doesn't work today, and because it doesn't work it often rings false or too strenuously hedged.

Since the news media has been entirely co-opted by corporate interests, editorially they have created a "centrist" fantasy land to do two essential things—keep corporate management happy (their influence hidden) and minimally inform the public—about everything—except for salacious distractions like Charlie Sheen.

This balanced American "center" doesn't really exist, but was created to provide the media with a counter-factual and virtual world to report on—a landscape where a millionaire like Chris Mathews can pretend to be a "workin' stiff," and millionaire Andrea Mitchell can scold both sides for not cutting entitlement programs she doesn't need.