January 21, 2003
ON NOT BITING THE HAND:
OPB Election Fantasy (It's all about priorities) (Oregon Magazine, January 10, 2003)On the program following Seven Days, Bill Moyers' NOW, Grover G. Norquist, of Americans for Tax Reform, was described in the intro as having "plotted" the new Bush economic strategy, which the program previous to Seven Days, Washington Week in Review, portrayed as shocking. (And, of course, impossible, risky, not based in reality, etc.)Three programs in a row, supported by your tax dollars, telling you that unless you vote for higher taxes on yourself, and more spending by government, everything will collapse. Three programs which are produced and manned by people who haven't the faintest idea how an economy works, what is contained in the U.S. Constitution, or what they've done to the people of America.
This all has to do with priorities. What people think comes first. To these people, government comes first.
Well, of course, they are government employees, aren't they? The government employee is today what the Founders thought the residents of DC would be at the time of the Founding, which is why the former should be disenfranchised and the latter allowed to vote in either Maryland or Virginia. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 21, 2003 8:24 AM
I used to watch these 1/2 hour political shows on PBS but now I avoid them as useless noise. Washington Week in Review is 4 liberal Beltway pundits with liberal moderater Gwen Ifill (Awful) showing how clueless they are. Inside Washington is a bit more tolerable but only if Krauthammer is on, if he's quiet the liberal gasbags (especially Germond) dominate. McLaughlin group at least has 2 on 2 but it seems McLaughlin is drifting left as he gets older (or is simply anti-Bush).
I find very little use for PBS in general - my kids are outgrowing the kids fare and there are plenty of cooking/gardening/home improvement shows elsewhere - and believe it should be privatized/shut down.