It has been a repetitive and tiresome mantra from the pro-public funding crowd that the public broadcasters are a deeply vital lifeline to people living in the hinterlands of our rural communities. This talking point has taken root over the past few years as the prior talking point to bludgeon and shame taxpayers to continue paying for something they don’t watch – “The GOP wants to kill Big Bird!” – has been neutered by the reality that PBS has not owned Sesame Street for over a decade. (When the contract with Warner-Discovery expired this Spring, Netflix snapped up the rights when PBS did not step up.)
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So the shift to the scare tactic that lives would be threatened in rural communities without public broadcasting became the new script. We are