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PBS: 'Learning' to Love Suicide Bombers?
Townhall.com ^ | April 14, 2017 | Brent Bozell

Posted on 04/14/2017 1:37:13 PM PDT by Kaslin

On April 5, The New York Times published an op-ed by retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal headlined "Save PBS. It Makes Us Safer." McChrystal now runs a big lobbying firm, so that may be why he cares so much -- he's a gun for hire.

So how does the general think PBS makes us safer? And from what are we safer? The answer: commercialism. Parents like his son and daughter-in-law "are busy in the morning and busy at night," he says. "They want to protect their children from over-commercialized content."

This argument is bizarre -- actually, let's call it what it is: disingenuous -- at a time when "Sesame Street," which was used to illustrate this article online, of course, is now an HBO property.

"Sesame Street" is the embodiment of the need for public funding? This is nonsense. Big Bird generates a fortune in the private sector. When you search "Sesame Street" under "all departments" on the Amazon website, it produces 39,276 results.

McChrystal concluded that the people defunding PBS are waging a war on civil society, asking, "Why then would we degrade or destroy an institution that binds us together?"

Some lobbyists will say anything. We hope he's well-compensated for writing those words. He's also featured in a video made by the lobbying group America's Public Television Stations claiming that public media "gets to the center" and is the "adult in the room" of the news business.

So what is it that binds us together anyway? Justin Haskins reports at TheBlaze that the PBS LearningMedia website has a lesson plan for grades nine through 12 titled "Dying to be a Martyr." The lesson "investigates conflict in the Middle East using interviews with young would-be suicide bombers." Video interviews shown in the class were done in 2004.

On April 5, The New York Times published an op-ed by retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal headlined "Save PBS. It Makes Us Safer." McChrystal now runs a big lobbying firm, so that may be why he cares so much -- he's a gun for hire.

So how does the general think PBS makes us safer? And from what are we safer? The answer: commercialism. Parents like his son and daughter-in-law "are busy in the morning and busy at night," he says. "They want to protect their children from over-commercialized content."

This argument is bizarre -- actually, let's call it what it is: disingenuous -- at a time when "Sesame Street," which was used to illustrate this article online, of course, is now an HBO property.

"Sesame Street" is the embodiment of the need for public funding? This is nonsense. Big Bird generates a fortune in the private sector. When you search "Sesame Street" under "all departments" on the Amazon website, it produces 39,276 results.

McChrystal concluded that the people defunding PBS are waging a war on civil society, asking, "Why then would we degrade or destroy an institution that binds us together?"

Some lobbyists will say anything. We hope he's well-compensated for writing those words. He's also featured in a video made by the lobbying group America's Public Television Stations claiming that public media "gets to the center" and is the "adult in the room" of the news business.

So what is it that binds us together anyway? Justin Haskins reports at TheBlaze that the PBS LearningMedia website has a lesson plan for grades nine through 12 titled "Dying to be a Martyr." The lesson "investigates conflict in the Middle East using interviews with young would-be suicide bombers." Video interviews shown in the class were done in 2004.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bozell; defundnpr; defundpbs; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; education; federalspending; genderdysphoria; homosexualagenda; islamindoctrination; lobbyists; mcchrystal; mediawingofthednc; newyorkslimes; npr; partisanmediashills; pbs; presstitutes; smearmachine; stanleymcchrystal; usjihad
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1 posted on 04/14/2017 1:37:13 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
The lesson "investigates conflict in the Middle East using interviews with young would-be suicide bombers."

They should do interviews with a successful one:


2 posted on 04/14/2017 1:41:32 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (Not tired of winning yet!)
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To: freedumb2003

Am I mistaken, or did Team Trump just de-fund PBS?

Tough noogies! MAGA!


3 posted on 04/14/2017 1:43:50 PM PDT by heterosupremacist (Domine Iesu Christe, Filius Dei, miserere me peccatorem!)
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To: Kaslin

I hope conservatives are starting to understand that these internationalist generals are fundamentally not on our side.


4 posted on 04/14/2017 1:50:03 PM PDT by WatchungEagle (and over)
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To: freedumb2003

https://unctv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/wa08.socst.world.glob.lpmartyr/dying-to-be-a-martyr

Nope, no questions like: “Would you like to be blown up by a suicide bomber? How would you feel if your best friend was blown up by a suicide bomber?”


5 posted on 04/14/2017 1:50:43 PM PDT by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: Kaslin

PBS=Pure Bull Sh*t. Time to put this POS down.


6 posted on 04/14/2017 1:51:43 PM PDT by WKUHilltopper (WKU 2016 Boca Raton Bowl Champions)
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To: WKUHilltopper

PBS
NPR
NEA

zero federal
funds in 2018.

zero


7 posted on 04/14/2017 2:00:15 PM PDT by vooch (t)
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To: Kaslin

PBS can sell advertising like other broadcasters if it wants to stay in business.


8 posted on 04/14/2017 2:02:48 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: WatchungEagle

They like to wax philosophical from their comfy ivory towers. Its fun for them.

Sort of like making the argument that Hitler and Mao and Stalin were nice guys just trying to do the right thing.

They take for granted everything and would be the first to whine and complain if it were taken from them.


9 posted on 04/14/2017 2:18:45 PM PDT by dhs12345
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To: Kaslin

McChrystal: a Rolling Stone still gathering moss


10 posted on 04/14/2017 2:23:20 PM PDT by confederatecarpetbag
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To: Kaslin

So if they fail in politics they become lobbyists and make millions. The entire system is corrupt.


11 posted on 04/14/2017 2:23:24 PM PDT by I want the USA back (Islam mandates warfare against unbelievers and is absolutely incompatible with Western society.)
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To: Kaslin

PBS = Progressive Brain Syndrome

If not stopped it leads to death.


12 posted on 04/14/2017 2:29:17 PM PDT by TigersEye (Make up my mind, NBC,CBS,CNN,ABC. What are the "facts" today?)
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To: Kaslin

Anyone plugging PBS for govt money is insane

I guess Petraeus and McCrystal are cut from the same cloth


13 posted on 04/14/2017 2:37:17 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

I agree.


14 posted on 04/14/2017 3:07:38 PM PDT by Kaslin ( The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triump. Thomas Paine)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

PBS already has a slew of advertisers preceding and following its programs. Unlike other networks, they don’t run advertising within the program. That’s pretty much the only difference these days.

And yet, I still hear it referred to as “commercial-free.”


15 posted on 04/14/2017 3:19:57 PM PDT by JennysCool
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To: Kaslin

“Why then would we degrade or destroy an institution that binds us together?”

Could say that about a lot of things liberals have destroyed in this country, bud. I’m deeply disappointed; I expected more out of one of the great generals of the GWOT.


16 posted on 04/14/2017 4:01:48 PM PDT by BostonNeocon
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To: Brad from Tennessee

...Or hit up it’s high profile donors for, “Mo’ money. Mo’ money. Mo’ money.”


17 posted on 04/14/2017 4:11:18 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: Kaslin
So how does the general think PBS makes us safer? And from what are we safer? The answer: commercialism. Parents like his son and daughter-in-law "are busy in the morning and busy at night," he says. "They want to protect their children from over-commercialized content."

I shut off my tv 9 years ago. Did a hell of a job getting rid of over-commercialized content. It also did a bang up job of reducing my daily intake of Socialist Regressive Just Us Warrior AgitProp.

18 posted on 04/14/2017 10:55:18 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (patriots win, Communists and Socialist Just-Us Warriors lose)
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To: dhs12345

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/nprs-new-headquarters-refuels-funding-debate/2013/06/21/bb53a64a-da00-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_story.html

How much money did that cost to build?”

Answer: $201 million, or a bit more than NPR’s annual operating budget of $174.7 million in fiscal 2013.


19 posted on 04/14/2017 11:06:51 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (patriots win, Communists and Socialist Just-Us Warriors lose)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

“PBS can sell advertising like other broadcasters if it wants to stay in business.”

They’re always conducting their own fundraisers anyway.

And if PBS is so indispensable, let them hit up Meryl Streep and Leonardo DeCaprio and Martin/Charlie Sheen for some bucks.


20 posted on 04/15/2017 1:26:13 AM PDT by Paulie (America without Christ is like a Chemistry book without the periodic table.)
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