Matthew Rimsky (51:51)
Yeah. And that's why I thought I would find blowback to this. And I combed the world to find it from the right, specifically on that point, like, oh, they've given us an atheist answer, and the blowback isn't there because maybe that's how good it was. Maybe it was one of those rare events that transcended politics. I would argue, though, that the Children's Television Work Workshop couldn't have gotten to that moment without all of the radical and creative thinking that made it inevitable that Trump would ultimately cut that 1.1 billion in federal funds. So I think it's hard to overestimate the quality of the programming in general put out by PBS dating back to the late 60s. So, I mean, Mr. Rogers neighborhood electric company Masterpiece Theater, EPIC documentaries from Ken Burns, investigations from Frontline, science exploration with Nova, Bill Moyers, Kenneth Clark's civilization, McNeil lair NewsHour. And then the political programming ran the gamut from Buckley's Firing Line, Take it or Leave it to Black Journal and Soul. Now, full disclosure, as a leftist, I'm part of a long line of folks who find or found PBS's like liberal commitment to balance a little bit too vulnerable to the both sidesing view from nowhere where which often intensifies as it fights to retain public funds. And it will do so usually by capitulating to the GOP or by increasing dependence on corporate sponsorships. And that's what happened, actually, in many cases. This show brought to you by Chevron, Merck, ExxonMobil, IBM, Boeing and Dupont. So all that said, however, I would give anything to have it all back because it was a huge social good overall, especially for rural and inner city citizens. It's hard for me to see the political moment that gave PBS its altruistic thrust as more than a temporary concession, however, from capital during a period of post war prosperity where there were these ideals of social cohesion and education and inclusive cultural literacy, all seen as salutary signs of positive governmental potential and also, also frankly, a form of soft power against the Soviets, who we were told had no culture at all. And maybe it's inevitable that we see this come to a close, that it can't really last for long before neoliberalism puts downward pressure on public spending and the idea that public arts funding is out of touch. Or there are advocates for smaller government pushing for privatization and corporate sponsorships. And then we have the culture war front where Rush Limbaugh and everybody else is out there every day in the 80s and 90s yelling about our taxes, funding the gays, and pushing the idea that government can't be trusted to do anything, least of all influence your kids. So now the hammer has fully come down. Julian, at the opening you talked about how, you know, they've been trying to do this for decades. Well, you know, anybody could have seen this coming. Going back to 1972, Nixon issued what was called the Archie Bunker veto against a PBS funding bill. He argued that public television had become a centralized fourth network with ties to the liberal Eastern establishment. There were complaints about high salaries at pbs. There were accusations of a kind of failed social engineering. There were also, I think, relevant questions of relevance and popularity, given that PBS never captured more than 2% of the overall TV market except for Sesame Street. Now there's this brief reprieve under Carter, whose I think sweaters rhymed with the cardigans in Mr. Rogers wardrobe. But then Reagan and Bush carried the torch to burn it down, railing against shows like PBS's Vietnam a television History, which they denounced as communist propaganda. And then an organization called Accuracy in Media, which I think we could call a spiritual ancestor to Prageru, was formed in 1969 specifically to counter that docu series, which was eight parts and it's reporting on Vietnam. And they produced a rebuttal film to the series and it aired on PBS for balance. Then comes Newt Gingrich, Family Research Council, and remember Bob dynamic dole. In 1992, he accused PBS supporters of hiding behind Big Bird, Mr. Rogers and Masterpiece Theater to shovel out funding for gay and lesbian shows. All these doom and gloom reports about what's wrong with America and all the other liberal cheerleading we see on public television, unquote with Clinton and a little bit more so with Obama. There is an attempt to protect and bolster the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS a little bit more against the onslaught through these very modest increases in funding. But the headwinds are very strong because conservatives, I think, have always known that public broadcasting means public education. It means inclusivity. It has to. It means a potentially radical increase in democracy and equality. So they had good reason to fear Pete Seeger being a repeated guest on Sesame Street. They weren't wrong that there was a progressive agenda on this show. They were open. The producers were open about. Yeah, we're setting it in inner city New York and we are specifically trying to reach black kids. They had reason to be a little bit worried about Jesse Jackson with a six inch fro and this huge MLK Jr gold medallion swinging from his neck, leading 50 kids in a call and response. I don't know if you guys have heard this, but listen to this.
