Time to Pull the Plug on PBS

Currently there is a debate in Congress over whether to continue funding PBS. Much of that debate has focused on the alleged left-wing nature of PBS' news content. I don't need to get to that issue...PBS simply has outlived its purpose.

The Public Broadcasting Service was founded in October of 1970 to provide programming diversity at a time when there were only three privately owned national networks broadcasting.  It brought cultural and educational programming to the dial.  I remember well growing up when there was just the local CBS, NBC and ABC stations and PBS.

The situation has changed drastically since the 1970s. Today's television viewers, thanks to cable and satellite, have an enormous amount of cultural and educational programming to choose from.  Here are but a few of those choices:

History Channel, Travel Channel, Discovery Network, The Learning Channel, Animal Planet, House and Garden, Food Network, Military Channel, A&E, History Channel, the Education Channel, Discovery Health Network, C-SPAN 1, 2 and 3, National Geographic, Science Channel, the Green Channel, BBC, Biography, History International, and DIY (Do It Yourself) Network. As far as news choices, I have CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC to name just a few.

I am a huge fan of the content that PBS produces.  I love Ken Burns' work and consider his Civil War documentary probably the best thing ever on television.  But it is no longer the case that only PBS provides this content.   There is no grounds for forcing taxpayers to pay of PBS programming when it's duplicated by scores of commercial networks.

It's time to pull the plug on PBS.