Posted on 07/19/2025 9:03:53 AM PDT by Mariner
Ken Burns has made more than 30 documentaries and won multiple Emmys.
But without funding from public television, his educational programming such as "The Civil War" and "Baseball" might never have existed, he told "PBS News Hour" in an interview Thursday.
Even today, the acclaimed filmmaker whose works — including his upcoming project "The American Revolution" — are broadcast on PBS, said his films get around 20% of their budgets from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, the body Congress recently voted to defund.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
This is why I mentioned the idea of a “PBS Classic” kind of channel to show classic Masterpiece Theatre or Matinee at the Bijou and other PBS shows produced back in the day as there is more than enough of the good stuff produced to enjoy in reruns.
"What's next for PBS and NPR after Republicans strip funding?"I guess what's next is... they'll find out if they are providing a product that anyone values and is willing to financially support.
Shelby Foote said he never would’ve agreed to do the “ Civil War “series if he’d known how much Ken Burns was going to selectively edit his contributions to create a false narrative.
In other words, Burns is the very personification of PBS/NPR.
Need a complete decoupling of those agencies with the government.
That is a good idea. Some more maybe:
A lot of PBS is cooking and craft shows. I don’t think they cost that much to produce.
While they may not be cheap to make, travel shows are a big hit, especially with shut-ins and stay-at-homes.
There is an awful lot of archival material out there. You could fill in the schedule with old news reels and “Victory at Sea.” History Channel basically already does that.
There is a whole world out there outside of the Anglosphere. I watch a lot of foreign documentaries on YouTube. Some could probably be picked up cheaply. Dramas, too (MHz already has the foreign cop shows).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Burns
Politics
Burns is a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party, describing himself as a “Yellow dog Democrat” and contributing almost $40,000 in political donations.[32] In 2008, the Democratic National Committee chose Burns to produce the introductory video for Senator Ted Kennedy’s August 2008 speech to the Democratic National Convention, a video described by Politico as a “Burns-crafted tribute casting him [Kennedy] as the modern Ulysses bringing his party home to port.”[33][34]
In August 2009, Kennedy died, and Burns produced a short eulogy video at his funeral. In endorsing Barack Obama for the U.S. presidency in December 2007, Burns compared Obama to Abraham Lincoln.[35] He said he had planned to be a regular contributor to Countdown with Keith Olbermann on Current TV.[36] In 2016, he also gave a commencement speech for Stanford University criticizing Donald Trump.[37][38]
In 2023, a 2013 photograph of Ken Burns and Clarence Thomas at a Koch Brothers fundraising event was made public in a Pro Publica article about Justice Thomas’ ties to right wing activists.[39] Burns stated that the encounter was a brief social encounter resulting from Charles Koch’s support of PBS programming.[40]
If they don’t think they can make it after these cuts, they’ll either have to close up shop, or do better so sponsors will jump on board.
As for me, I can live without documentaries on baseball, and can definitely live without classical and jazz music. In the 21st Century every American has every type of music available 24/7 through some medium.
Now can we taxpayers get refunds for the money we sent to these two disgusting stations?
They’re going to throw all of PBS in the trash can along with Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street
PBS+
NPR+
That’s the trend isn’t it?
Yep, just like when a school tax increase is voted down, the school board threaten to cut football and band.
Well let them threaten - I told the local NPR begathon operation many years ago that while I liked some of their music programming, as along as they were going to have a left-wing bias on all news and other reporting, I’d be happy to listen to the music for free and let the liberals pay the bill.
The budget of many non-profit and left-leaning groups is a complex morass of kickbacks and quid-pro-quo. A University Professor gets a government grant to study DEI in Afghanistan. NPR then does 30 min on the study repeatedly. And thus the taxpayer pays for the NPR content.
Some NPR stations are University Stations funded by other parts of the complex Federal money recipient network.
How did it ever become funded to start with??
They can rely on George Soros contributions and stop pretending they were ever impartial.
Burns’ “Civil War” was perhaps the most morose thing I ever saw on TV.
His “WWII” struck me as counter-patriotic in many spots.
One of the few things I liked about his “Baseball” anthology was getting many of the Negro League players into the spotlight, which was a rarity at the time.
The budget of many non-profit and left-leaning groups is a complex morass of kickbacks and quid-pro-quo.
Not to worry. As soon as we have another Democrat President funding will be restored.
Some years ago I read that only 10% of their funding came from the government.
I can’t speak to the accuracy of that claim, nor can I say what percent comes from the taxpayer now, but it is not nearly as significant as the whiners claim.
I am pretty sure their affluent leftist audience will easily cover the loss with increased donations. They need their leftist bubble. I suspect their fund raising marathons will include some subtle (and not so subtle) digs at the “truth hating” conservatives cutting them off.
Yep, Burns is nothing but a propagandist for the left. Everything he does is laced with leftist BS
This is pretty serious. Burns will have to go back having his mommy give him bowl haircuts.
Leftists worship a guy who can do documentaries that consist mainly of zooming in and out on old photos, playing sad violin music, and with a somber sounding narrator spewing propaganda.
The best Ken Burns documentary was the one about the black space program, and he didn't make it. At least it was entertaining.
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