NON-commercial? Every time I surf through PBS, I am inundated with "funds provided by" ADVERTISEMENTS (usually longer than the ads on regular broadcast TV) or interruptions BEGGING for "your support".
I have sent money to a local PBS station, during a pledge drive to "support" a show I really enjoyed.
After the drive was over, the show was on ONCE, one episode ONLY, at 2:30 in the morning, in the following two MONTHS!
I was DEFRAUDED by PBS to the tune of $200, and all I got was a mousepad and t-shirt.
PBS can kiss my hairy patoot. I only wish that there was a way that taxpayers could direct their tax dollars, rather than a slush fund for Congress to slop its pigs with.
That's their MO. Run shows that people actually like to watch like "Red Dwarf", or "Dr. Who" during their pledge drives, then run their usual tripe the rest of the time. Or they'll run a concert and interrupt it three or four times to beg for donations. I remember a Carol King concert a few months back that they interrupted 4 times, for begging and pleading, and these weren't brief little commercial time outs. They dragged one out to nearly 10 minutes! Completely ruined the rythm of the concert, and I love Carol's music.