The nerve of my local PBS station.

Last night I watched the pledge drive version of the celebration of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday.  There were some wonderful performances during this abbreviated version of full concert from Great Performances.

I was particularly struck by the two local hosts/beggars asking for money to support PBS in that self congratulatory way public broadcasting does for the vast range of ideas and cultures they bring to us.  Without an iota of awareness, they tout the messages Pete Seeger spent his life talking and singing about, peace, justice, inclusion, worker's rights and the environment, but the only place you will hear these messages is in the entertainment portion of their programming.  These ideas are not featured as mainstream or Serious by their news divisions or the commentators at PBS or NPR.  When is the last time you heard someone on a public broadcasting news program espouse Pete Seeger's vision for the world?

And I only sampled a very small portion of the begging and self congratulations.  It took some nerve to suggest public broadcasting supports a world as Pete might envision it with all they do to undermine it.  Pro-war and military/anti-peace activist, pro-Wal-Mart/anti-union, pro-health insurance industry/anti-health care reform, pro-torture/anti-accountability, pro-Israel/anti-Palestinian is their slant on the world.  I suppose the local station feels a couple hours a year from someone with the opposite view is going to balance the daily onslaught from their news divisions.  That must help them sleep at night.

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