Distractions

PBS, like NPR, is struggling to attract new and younger tuners-in. Both are publicly-supported but corporate and donor dependent, and younger people have many options to choose from in news and entertainment. PBS and NPR began in the 1970s, when a public option to commercial and corporate media was a growing public demand, and when government spending was seen as a public benefit.

It didn't used to be this way, but both networks are feverishly appealing to listeners and viewers for money. Minions at Wisconsin Public Radio have even gone so far as falsely saying the "public" in public radio is members of the public who donate. It actually means publicly supported - the public-at-large, represented through taxation and government spending at the national and state level.

I don't listen or watch either much anymore. NPR, in its desperation to attract young people, is attempting to make it anchors and reporters more appealing by having them be more informal and chummy, greeting each other with "Hey." For me it is a cue to turn the radio off. 

PBS's NewsHour, while not as obnoxious, has become somewhat like local TV news, friendly, superficial and boring. Both networks have become not worth my time.

A perfect example of PBS's trend is a show I tuned into last night, GZERO World With Ian Bremmer. The subject at hand was the Gaza protests at college and university campuses around the country. Instead of delving into why students are protesting - the U.S. sponsorship of Israel's bombing, starvation and mass murder - the discussion instead did the usual establishmentarian distraction of false equivalency of protesters versus supposed uncomfortable Jewish students who are victims of "antisemitism." The canard of antisemitism is very likely an AIPAC motivated changing the subject tactic, the real meaning being anyone who criticizes Israel is an antisemite. 

And so it goes. We have been building up to this predicament for a long time. In the simplistic world of Trump versus Biden we can indulge in escapism, focusing on periphery. It won't be for much longer.

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