76-07-B1
- Main Page \ Reagan Radio Commentaries \ 1976
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Public Broadcasting[edit]
Transcript[edit]I suppose I should start with a qualifier. I'm in favor of free speech, oppose censorship, and will battle those who would restrict anyone's right to speak his or her piece. Now with that settled, let me say, nothing about television is free. That, of course, isn't news to any of you. The "tube" only lights up by way of a considerable outlay of money, as we all well know. On regular commercial channels the money comes from advertising sponsors and we are reminded of that every time the entertainment is interrupted for a commercial. Incidentally, some of the commercials are pretty entertaining and certainly a lot more imaginative than they once were. But, we who view pay in the purchase of products advertised on the air. Then there is public television, no crass commercialism and a level of culture some believe cannot be achieved by those who mix enterprise and entertainment. And, the general belief is that public TV is free. Well, obviously it costs someone something, but it is commonly accepted that those who prefer its cultural level contribute just as private contributors support the symphony, the opera and the ballet. I don't suggest that public TV has fostered this belief or even contributed to it in any way. But, the truth is public TV has a more steady income than might result from private charity even though its audience tends to be higher in educational level and income than those who sit through the commercials on regular TV. This select audience would perhaps object to being classed as a special group, but nevertheless 70% of public TV funding is by tax dollars extracted from the citizenry at large. Therefore it really is "public". A public broadcasting service supplies the programs to the local public stations. The commercial stations are subject to a kind of quality control by the viewers. If we don't watch certain programs, the sponsor takes them off the air. As taxpayers, we have no such control over the programming paid for by our tax dollars on public TV, nor were we ever asked if this is what we want our tax dollars used for. If public TV programs can't make it in competition with commercial TV, is it right to force the tax payer to subsidize those programs for an audience that is admittedly more affluent than the average? Shouldn't there at least be some way whereby the paying, but non-viewing tax payers could register approval or disapproval of the programs they are sponsoring? I won't go into the frequency with which public TV indulges in programs which are propaganda for one cause or another, but those who pay should have some recourse when there is disagreement with the message. The president of the Farm Bureau Federation protested about a program on migrant farm workers. The Public Broadcasting Service responded in November with an even more blatant program which even the drama critics described as propaganda for Cesar Chavez and his United Farm Workers. Whatever happened to pay TV? This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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