Joel Stein on De-Funding PBS

If we got rid of PBS, cable TV would gladly pick up the few good shows. Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel would be in a bidding war for "Sesame Street," and they'd be willing to produce a lot more episodes than the 26 a year that PBS has squeezed it down to. Same with "Arthur," "Postcards From Buster" and "Bob the Builder." CNN and MSNBC would fight for "NewsHour" and "Frontline."

But the problem isn't just that in a 300-channel universe, PBS doesn't crack the top 20. The problem is that it's another upper-class subsidy, like tax breaks for mortgages, the NEA and Tom DeLay's vacations.

There is no other station so obviously aimed at rich, well-educated, white people. Should our government be responsible for providing Edith Piaf documentaries, 98-hour histories of jazz and baseball, Broadway shows, discussions between Charlie Rose and Yo-Yo Ma and rich people figuring out how much their antiques are worth? This is a demo that was clamoring for Alan Alda before his gig on "The West Wing."

Sure, there must be some poor people who don't have basic cable and really enjoy "Sesame Street" and "Nova." But for $400 million we could have Big Bird fly to their houses every morning and teach their kids how to count in Spanish.

The idea that market forces cannot produce shows of as high quality as the government is patronizing. We don't need the government to get Thomas Pynchon to write books or Alexander Payne to direct movies. Besides, if we have to let one medium devolve artistically, I think TV is the way to go.

So let's untether PBS from our government, freeing up not only the $400 million but the time spent each year arguing about the $400 million. PBS could move to cable and live off money it would get for selling off its broadcast-spectrum space to those new sucker networks that believe low-number channels still mean something in a TiVo world.

Op-ed here. (Free registration required.)

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For two strong and eloquent liberal responses from a decidedly non-libertarian perspective, see www.dailypepper.com.