I don’t think CNN realizes they are making the exact point that PBS didn’t actually need federal government funding
PBS, defunded by Trump, says ‘we’re still here’ with big new Ken Burns documentary
Sunday’s premiere of Ken Burns’ new PBS series “The American Revolution” doubles as an attention-grabbing statement, months after President Donald Trump succeeded in stripping away all federal funding for public broadcasting in the US.
The message is clear: “We are still here.”
The documentary, which airs over six consecutive nights, is “a really big moment” for PBS, said Paula Kerger, the organization’s CEO.
There has been some marketplace confusion as a result of Trump’s campaign to defund public media.
Since the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is winding down as a consequence of the funding cut, “people thought that meant that we were gone,” Kerger said.
However, the big and loud marketing campaign for “The American Revolution” is proving otherwise.
Do CNN and PBS realize that they’ve literally made the point that PBS had no need of taxpayer funding? That they can survive on their own?
Despite painful layoffs and other cost-cutting measures, the public broadcasting system remains intact and is still capable of HBO- and Netflix-sized moments, such as the latest from Burns.
More power to them. Just, no taxpayer money to them, at least at the federal level.
Some local stations are more affected than others. Those in bigger markets generally have more donors and other sources of revenue; those in smaller markets have fewer such resources. Public media officials have warned that stations in rural and hard-to-reach areas are at particular risk of going off the airwaves in the months and years ahead.
Most couldn’t care less in small markets: they are mostly Republican voters and do not listen or watch. Plus, they have a large number of outlets to turn to for news, entertainment, and weather. I’m confident they can at least get The Weather Channel or Accuweather. Seriously, PBS has no one to blame but themselves for going hardcore leftists, Bush 43 deranged, and Trump deranged. Being shills for Democrats
A lot of the libs watching and reviewing are saying it is history through the lens of today. Shouldn’t it be history as it actually happened? BTW, the point about it being Lexington Green is wrong, as to why that battle happened. The gun grabbers started it.
I can’t really comment, haven’t seen it, probably won’t. I’ve seen more than enough on the Revolutionary War, but, since libs love it, it’s probably moonbat droppings.
Kids used to be able to watch kids TV without ads.
Now they must watch cable shows filled with ads for sugar cereal and plastic toys from Gyna
Congratulation John,
That is the stupidest, dumbest statement I have ever read.
Like most communists, Smith never watched PBS, just supports it ideologically. Anyone who has watched it knows they indeed have always had commercials and the long running Sesame Street program is practically a full length commercial for Sesame Street brand toys, marketed as “educational programming”.
Our founding fathers were progressives conservatives wanted to keep King George
Johnny, Johnny…. The founding fathers wanted less government, as in breaking free from England. Progressives usually are ok with more government
JL, That’s a bit of an oversimplification. Progressives are OK with more government, when THEY are exclusively in control of government. The founding fathers wanted less government because they had experienced the failure of governments run by and for England and they were not in that club. They understood they would not always be in the majority of power so they wanted a government with limited powers so that the freedoms they had won in war would not be taken away by faceless men in back rooms.
The proper terms of the time were not progressives or conservatives since neither of those groups existed yet. They were Royalists or Republicans, where Republicans wanted the representative form of government that the founders eventually created and the term Royalist is pretty self descriptive. Both large and small government fit within each term. Neither group at the time could have imagined a government with the size and scope of powers we have today. George the Third, never imagined regulating the amount of water used to flush toilets.
Well, that’s fine with me, they never were really Public, at least now they’re only BS.
Isn’t this exactly for what we voted? Didn’t we say that PBS and NPR should be able to survive as private broadcasters, the way every other broadcaster must?
The only PBS show I ever watch is This Old House, and even that I watch reruns on private broadcasters, usually the Magnolia Network.
“They are terribly run” – Fareed Zakaria explains the problems with Democratic Blue Cities – Video
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2025/11/they-are-terribly-run-fareed-zakaria.html
I rather enjoyed the Ken Burns documentary on radio “Empire of the Air” But about the only thing I regularly watch is the local travel show “Under the Radar Michigan”. To tell the truth, I’ve mostly given up on all the broadcast networks. I find the old stuff on the retro subchannels more interesting. I would suspect that PBS would be on cable or satellite in rural areas, or one of the local commercial stations could put it on one of it’s own subchannels.
The pittance given to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be better spent on Big Donnie’s golfing trips, protecting Kashyap Patel’s girlfriend or especially helping Donnie’s business interests in *Saudi Arabia (he’s trading a commitment (Defense Pact) to defend Saudi Arabia for access to Saudi riches!). Donnie is a business genius.
Donald J. Trump (kleptocrat) is the most corrupt US president in history. He’s up there with Suharto, Putin, Marcos, Seko, Papa Doc, Fujimori… His take will be in the Billions!!
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* TRUMP Hotel and Tower, Riyadh
TRUMP Tower, Jeddah
TRUMP Plaza, Jeddah
TRUMP Organization, $63 billion government-owned “giga-project”, Diriyah
Rimjob and his non sequiturs. LOL.