PBS doesn't need to keep getting public money. Jonathan S. Tobin writes:
PBS stations also long ago ceased being “educational TV.” They still run children’s programming, documentaries, and upscale British dramas. But their time is also taken up with the flotsam of broadcasting history such as “The Lawrence Welk Show.” Most of what PBS offers can be just as easily found elsewhere on the expanded universe of the digital dial.
That’s part of the reason “Sesame Street” left PBS for the greener pastures of HBO. The switch enabled Children’s Television Workshop to produce more new episodes every year. The notion that “Sesame Street” needed government handouts was always ridiculous since it was, on its own, profitable enough to support itself or be lured to a new spot where it could better flourish.
[Jonathan S. Tobin, “Now That ‘Sesame Street’ Is On HBO, PBS Doesn’t Need Tax Dollars,” The Federalist, October 18]
