Why the PBS crowd isn't like the rest of America

San Diego Union Tribune ^ | 11/30/2001 | Joseph Perkins

[dalereed]

JOSEPH PERKINS / THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

Why the PBS crowd isn't like the rest of America

November 30, 2001

'That a man of color would take the position you espoused . . . is incredible."

"You should be shocked by the tribunals. They are a form of lynching and as a man of color you should understand the dangers of that."

"To (hear) a black man advocating summary executions makes one wonder if he ever heard of a lynching -- an old American tradition."

Those were a few choice snippets from several of the e-mails I received after appearing this week on the "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" opposite Anthony Lewis of The New York Times.

Obviously, my views were not especially well received by some of the Public Broadcasting Service news show's more caustic viewers.

No problem. A guy who offers his opinions for public consumption -- whether in print or over the airwaves -- accepts that his point of view will be criticized in some quarters.

But what does my complexion have to do with anything?

If a reader or a viewer happens to disagree with my perspective on military tribunals -- or any other subject for that matter -- I am happy to entertain their counter-argument. But they lose me when they bring race into the equation.

The irony is that the e-mail writers who took issue with me almost certainly view themselves as enlightened on matters of race. They are probably liberal and Democratic (like most PBS viewers).

Yet, those enlightened liberals advance the patently racist notion that all 35 million black folks in this country, including yours truly, should think alike.

And that on the issue of military tribunals, we like-thinking blacks should find them an affront to civil liberty. And as "a man of color" in particular, I should view them as nothing less than "a form of lynching."

What amuses is that those irate e-mail writers almost certainly think they speak for the mass of Americans (much as PBS viewers presume they are representative of the American mainstream).

But here's a news flash for them. They are dead wrong. And the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll bears this out.

Nearly 60 percent of Americans agree that suspected terrorists should be tried by military tribunals as opposed to U.S. criminal courts. And when told that President Bush favored the plan, support rose to 64 percent.

And it's not that those surveyed simply didn't know what trial by military tribunal would entail (which is, no doubt, how Lewis and NewsHour regulars would explain away the poll results).

The poll asked the question two different ways. For half those surveyed, the question provided no details, asking only if non-U.S. citizens charged with terrorism should be tried in the regular criminal court system or by special military tribunal.

The other half was given a more detailed question, explaining that in military tribunals, trials can be closed to the public, with a military judge and jury, and that there is no right to appeal.

There was no difference in the responses. Six in 10 support military tribunals.

And here is something else that will confound the PBS crowd: It's not just right-wing Republican types who support military tribunals. Not just those who lack college diplomas. Not just war-mongering men-folk. But also Democrats and college graduates and women.

And for the information of those oh-so-enlightened NewsHour viewers who presumed to tell me how "a man of color" ought to think about the issue: Some 66 percent of blacks support military tribunals for non-Americans charged with terrorism.

So I guess that puts me in the majority among blacks, among Americans. Which, of course, one would never imagine judging from the tenor of some of the e-mails I received from NewsHour viewers.

But I'm used to that. My liberal, PBS-watching friends -- yes, I have some -- often wonder how I have the temerity to express certain views either in print or broadcast (like advocating military tribunals). They just naturally assume everyone thinks like they do.

But I know better. I know that the majority of Americans is more conservative than liberal. That the majority is closer to my point of view on the range of issues -- including military tribunals -- than it is to the views of, say, Tony Lewis.

So I don't mind the occasional hysterical e-mail from either readers or viewers who expect me to think like Jesse Jackson or Kweisi Mfume or maybe Al Sharpton.

As the Bard famously advised: "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

Perkins can be reached via e-mail at joseph.perkins@uniontrib.com.

Copyright 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

[RosieCotton]

"Only reason I watch PBS is Red Green."

PBS has some good music, a very few decent science shows (most of those are propaganda too), and Red Green. The rest of it is all liberals all the time.

Not to mention Teletubbies. GACK!! On 9/11, all other channels changed to news. PBS was still showing that despicable show. They have no shame.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I could go a whole year without Red Green.

[Andrew Wiggin]

I always thought the people behind Sesame Street had the lowest opinion of the intelligence of children ... until I saw Teletubbies. Just when you think that "children's programing" couldn't be dumbed down any further ...

Back to the original topic, great article. Democrats demonstrate time and time again that they are the most racist of Americans.

[Drango]

PBS and NPR, with thier strong liberal bias, survive with our TAX dollars because of bi-partisan support!!! The following Congress Critters form the Public Broadcasting Caucus Group;

Founding Members:
Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Zach Wamp (R-TN)
Nita Lowey (D-NY)

Amo Houghton (R-NY)
Edward Markey (D-MA)
Connie Morella (R-MD)

Additional Members: Baker, Richard (R-LA) Baldacci, John (D-ME) Barcia, Jim (D-MI) Bentsen, Ken (D-TX) Bereuter, Doug (R-NE) Berkley, Shelley (D-NV) Berman, Howard (D-CA) Boehlert, Sherwood (R-NY) Bonior, David (D-MI) Boucher, Rick (D-VA) Brown, Sherrod (D-OH) Camp, Dave (R-MI) Clement, Bob (D-TN) Costello, Jerry (D-IL) Cox, Christopher (R-CA) Cramer, Robert E. (Bud) (D-AL) Dicks, Norm (D-WA) Dingell, John (D-MI) Doggett, Lloyd (D-TX) Ehlers, Vern (R-MI) Engel, Eliot (D-NY) Eshoo, Anna (D-CA) Etheridge, Bob (D-NC) Fattah, Chaka (D-PA) Fletcher, Ernie (R-KY) Harold Ford (D-TN) Gillmor, Paul (R-OH) Gonzalez, Charles (D-TX) Gordon, Bart (D-TN) Hall, Ralph (D-TX) Hastings, Alcee (D-FL) Hinchey, Maurice D. (D-NY) Holt, Rush (D-NJ) Hutchinson, Asa (R-AR) Jefferson, William (D-LA) John, Chris (D-LA) Kelly, Sue (R-NY) Kennedy, Patrick (D-RI) Kind, Ron (D-WI) LaFalce, John (D-NY) LaHood, Ray (R-IL) Membership as of 6-01

Langevin, James (D-RI) Lantos, Tom (D-CA) Lowey, Nita (D-NY) Lucas, Ken (D-KY) Maloney, Carolyn (D-NY) Maloney, James (D-CT) McCarthy, Carolyn (D-NY) McCarthy, Karen (D-MO) McDermott, Jim (D-WA) McNulty, Mike (D-NY) Moore, Dennis (D-KS) Myrick, Sue (R-NC) Nadler, Jerrold (D-NY) Napolitano, Grace (D-CA) Nethercutt, George (R-WA) Olver, John (D-MA) Pallone, Frank (D-NJ) Pascrell, Bill (D-NJ) Payne, Donald (D-NJ) Petri, Thomas (R-WI) Reyes, Silvestre (D-TX) Rodriguez, Ciro (D-TX) Rothman, Steve (D-NJ) Roybal-Allard, Lucille (D-CA) Sabo, Martin (D-MN) Sanchez, Loretta (D-CA) Sawyer, Tom (D-OH) Slaughter, Louise (D-NY) Spratt, John (D-SC) Thurman, Karen (D-FL) Traficant, James (D-OH) Udall, Mark (D-CO) Vitter, David (R-LA) Watt, Melvin (D-NC) Watts, J.C. Jr. (R-OK) Waxman, Henry (D-CA) Weiner, Anthony (D-NY) Whitfield, Ed (R-K)

[dheretic]

Every liberal should read some of Martin Buber's "I and You" (AKA I and Thou though I and You is a more correct translation of "Ich und du"). In it Buber states that there are two types of relationships: I/It and I/You. When we are not equals we are in an I/It relationship, but a true and good relationship is an I/You relationship where people see each other as individuals and each part of the I/You pair is equal before God and each other's eyes. So with I/You there are no groups like White men and Black men. There are only individual men seeing each other as fellow individual men. Perhaps thats why Buber is not the most popular of the major existentialists in academia.....

[tophat9000]

To find your local NPR station.

Just turn your radio on and channel surf listen what all the stations broadcast.

The one that stands out as being far more to the left then the other, in the extreme, will be the local NPR station.

This is not a joke

[Drango]

Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was included in the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill. CPB funding for FY 2003 (advance year appropriation) was approved in House/Senate conference at $365 million (a $15 million increase over FY 2002)

HEY, that $365 million could be used to feed children!!!!

[tophat9000]

The was:

Just turn your radio on and channel surf, listening to what all the stations broadcast.

[martin gibson]

My preference is Bluegrass ...

"I know not what course others may take, but as for myself, give me Ralph Stanley or give me death".

[bluebeowulf]

One problem with doing away with public funding of PBS is that every time such a motion is made in Congress, some idiot will bring in a Big Bird doll and ask why anyone would want to attack Big Bird. To the soft minds out there, this stands in for sound logic. Very frustrating.

I just can't stand the smarty-pants, know-it-all, holier-than-thou attitude of the PBS crowd. Cut their funding and see what happens to the programming.

[Billthedrill]

some idiot will bring in a Big Bird doll and ask why anyone would want to attack Big Bird...

Yep. Bumper-sticker politics for bumper-sticker minds, and never mind the fact that the Children's Television Workshop is a hugely profitable enterprise...

[Drango]

As you say every time they try to cut funding it fails. The vote below failed...

Congressman Michael G. Oxley

Fourth Ohio District

Oxley-Shadegg Amendment to

Reduce CPB Spending by One Percent

• The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) receives an annual federal appropriation, which it funnels to public broadcasting entities around the country. Additional taxpayer funds flow to public radio and television stations from other federal and state grant programs.

• However, public broadcasting receives most of its revenue from nonappropriated sources, such as corporate underwriting, private donations, and royalties from the marketing of licensed merchandise. CPB funding makes up approximately 14% of public broadcasting's budget.

• Last year's appropriations measure increased CPB's line item by $10 million. This year's Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill increases CPB funding by another $15 million, to $365 million.

• The CPB's last authorization expired in 1996.

• Last year, it was discovered that public broadcasting stations around the country had been sharing lists of their donors with partisan entities, in a widespread practice going back several years. The personal privacy of tens of thousands of donors was compromised in the process.

• In addition, in 1997 it was discovered that senior executives at NPR and PBS had evaded a statutory cap on their compensation by granting themselves regular bonuses of up to $45,000 a year. Rather than resolving to comply with the law, they hired expensive lobbying talent to have the cap lifted. Public records show that PBS paid Covington & Burling alone $60,000 to get the cap removed. A provision eliminating the cap was slipped into a 1998 appropriations measure.

• As former Congressman Bill Paxon said at the time, "It's outrageous that PBS hired a lobbyist, spending more taxpayer money to get more taxpayer's money to their executives."

• Public broadcasters have squandered their federal subsidy on other questionable activities. Last year, it was revealed that PBS headquarters in Old Town Alexandria employs a professional masseuse as part of its "preventative health" program.

• Despite claims of underfunding, public broadcasters are branching out into "new media." NPR's president recently stated that NPR intends to expand into Internet ventures, satellite radio, and digital cable, saying, "We could think of ourselves as a multimedia company." NPR plans to establish satellite radio ventures with $1 million in funding from the CPB. Should taxpayers really be forced to subsidize a "multimedia company?"

• In another "new media" venture, CPB has "invested" $650,000 in tax dollars in Public Interactive, Inc., an online content developer. Is this a legitimate part of CPB's core mission?

• The Oxley-Shadegg amendment would trim 1% from the appropriation for CPB, saving taxpayers $3.65 million. Even with the amendment, CPB's line item would still increase $11.35 million over last year's measure.

• To make up for a slight reduction in the windfall they anticipated in this year's appropriations bill, public broadcasters might try cutting out the masseuse, the lobbyists, the speculative new media ventures, or other spending having nothing to do with providing over-the-air educational programming to the American public.

[beckett]

I saw Perkins debate Lewis that night. He held his position very well. And he reminded viewers of a crucial fact. In prior trials important information became known as a direct result of open testimony in court. For example, an expert testified that ground level bombs could never take down the WTC. He even offered that it would take something like a fully fueled jet to do the job. And another witness from the CIA testified that Bin Laden's cell phone conversations were easily audited, causing Bin Laden to desist permanently from cell phone conversations.

This kind of problem would be eliminated in a military tribunal, where court officers can closely monitor and control the public release of information.

[centurion]

aman bro

[dalereed]

Eliminate the "big bird", that program was designed by Zerox for the sole purpose of promoting communism in this country by indoctrinating the children with socialist, feel good garbage. Their childrens programing in nothing short of evil!

[gundog]

Lump the NPR crowd in with them...listen to that crap as background for awhile and yer brain goes soft.

[Copperhead61]

Keep your stick on the ice ;).

[stands2reason]

Their classical music isn't all that great, either, to tell the truth, but usually there's not much else to listen to driving down a country road.

Hey, what's wrong with Handel/Strauss/Mozart/Bach/Handel/Strauss/Handel/Mozart/Handel...;-)