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Posted

PBS kids is the kinda one refuge of “if you need to pull the screen lever, at least it’s safe”. We really don’t iPad except on planes or long car trips, but we uninstalled YouTube - you get them set up with whatever innocuous thing and then 2 seconds later who knows. On PBS Kids you can at least buy 20 minutes without someone trying to sell your 2 year old corn syrup.

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Posted

Pondering it a bit, PBS, being non-profit, is missing the profit incentives that make other media complete shit.

You could argue that private sector could/should produce such a thing on its own.  But the empirical "data" suggests otherwise.

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Posted
2 hours ago, Bojack said:

Ana had ever listened to 5 minutes of NPR, he'd realize he's a minor league both-sideser compared to them.

KUT is literally the only ota radio I listen to. Your assessment is absolutely laughable. 

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Posted
34 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Pondering it a bit, PBS, being non-profit, is missing the profit incentives that make other media complete shit.

You could argue that private sector could/should produce such a thing on its own.  But the empirical "data" suggests otherwise.

Bro, the shareholders would NOT accept a "not for profit" use of their money. Don't you know they're entitled to consistent quarterly growth at all costs?

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Posted
1 minute ago, Celery Man said:

If Ana listens to KUT in the car alone, does him explaining how much smarter he is than other people even make a sound?

I make the kids listen too, until sometimes the content is not age appropriate. 

Posted
1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

Pondering it a bit, PBS, being non-profit, is missing the profit incentives that make other media complete shit.

You could argue that private sector could/should produce such a thing on its own.  But the empirical "data" suggests otherwise.

It's called crowding out. There is clearly a market for what is obviously a good product. How can a private sector entity compete for the same audience with an entity that gets a huge government subsidy? Government is the self licking ice cream cone. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, Thetexashammer said:

It's called crowding out. There is clearly a market for what is obviously a good product. How can a private sector entity compete for the same audience with an entity that gets a huge government subsidy? Government is the self licking ice cream cone. 

Why didn't the private sector generate Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, etc?

And now we're concerned about private media having to compete with PBS?  Fucking hell.

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Posted
8 minutes ago, Thetexashammer said:

How can a private sector entity compete for the same audience with an entity that gets a huge government subsidy? Government is the self licking ice cream cone. 

Your argument is that PBS was crowding out the TV viewership market for wholesome programming? Please say more, and provide some supporting info

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Posted
16 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

I can't tell if this thread has drawn in a weak troll or if there is a new candidate for dumbest motherfucker on this site.

New?

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Posted
12 hours ago, Sawbonz said:


The new budget that was passed just gave the top 10 richest Americans on estimated $3 trillion over the next 10 years and not a peep from these fucksticks about it. 

1*txP9TNp3wvb3XxS7fk279A.jpeg

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Posted

In general, you can't have quality/educational for-profit kids television because you can't make a toy line from Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers that is going to be able to compete at any scale with GI Joe or Barbie or Transformers or Marvel or whatever else.

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Posted
36 minutes ago, safe sex said:

In general, you can't have quality/educational for-profit kids television because you can't make a toy line from Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers that is going to be able to compete at any scale with GI Joe or Barbie or Transformers or Marvel or whatever else.

The problem with american innovation. 

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Posted
1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:

1*txP9TNp3wvb3XxS7fk279A.jpeg

I used to feel this cartoon was perfect but lately it bothers me that the rich man's cookie pile isn't way bigger for the sake of accuracy. If hard hat man's one cookie represented a net worth of $500,000, rich man's cookie pile would be at most $15 million. If rich man has a net worth of one billion, that's 2000 cookies. If that were Elon, Bezos, or Zuckerberg the cookie pile would be need to be between 450,000 and 800,000 cookies. Anyway, here's a picture of those 3 at the inauguration with some other rich pricks. Between those 3 people, they have about 1.8 million cookies if hard hat man's cookie represents $500,000 net worth.

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSS8XmEhz54RxcO2l24TiA

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Posted
3 hours ago, Bojack said:

I used to feel this cartoon was perfect but lately it bothers me that the rich man's cookie pile isn't way bigger for the sake of accuracy. If hard hat man's one cookie represented a net worth of $500,000, rich man's cookie pile would be at most $15 million. If rich man has a net worth of one billion, that's 2000 cookies. If that were Elon, Bezos, or Zuckerberg the cookie pile would be need to be between 450,000 and 800,000 cookies. Anyway, here's a picture of those 3 at the inauguration with some other rich pricks. Between those 3 people, they have about 1.8 million cookies if hard hat man's cookie represents $500,000 net worth.

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSS8XmEhz54RxcO2l24TiA

image.thumb.png.5c947ca79e1cf0531c3a17cbdb853504.png

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Posted

Ah yes. NPR, which along with the Pentagon and defense contractors is famously the third pillar of the MIC. At least this will stop the revolving door of two and three stars to the Tiny Desk. 

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Posted
5 hours ago, safe sex said:

In general, you can't have quality/educational for-profit kids television because you can't make a toy line from Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers that is going to be able to compete at any scale with GI Joe or Barbie or Transformers or Marvel or whatever else.

 

There’s a new toyco heading to Sesame Street. Just Play is replacing Hasbro as Sesame Workshop’s master toy licensing partner for North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa starting in 2023.

Sesame Workshop brands generate around US$1.2 billion in licensed product sales each year, according to the nonprofit.

https://kidscreen.com/2022/03/04/just-play-takes-over-sesame-workshop-toy-licensing

Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, DaggerHorns said:

PBS was all made possible by Viewers Like You!

“This program was made possible with contributions by viewers like you.”

Edited by Willfully Horn
Posted

If you’ve never viewed any of the Crash Course series, they are really great. I always mean to use those in an annual resolution, or just start chunking through them until I’ve watched them all. This computer science one is particularly great for “non-technical” folks working in tech or tech adjacent roles.


https://thecrashcourse.com/courses/

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Posted

I wonder how many of the confused people in this thread who think public broadcasting (a purposefully non-profit enterprise) was funded for the same reason specific for-profit industries are subsidized (to help them get established so they can then become net providers of jobs, tax revenue, and general economic benefit down the road) think that the oil and gas industry should also be shut off from any subsidies.  They're pretty established at this point, don't you think?   Shouldn't we all agree that after decades of being pumped full of our tax dollars, they've had enough time to determine if there is a "real market demand for what they're doing"?

For those keeping track, public broadcasting receives about $535 million per year in federal funding. In contrast, the oil and gas industry receives over $15 billion in direct federal subsidies (in addition to billions more from states), and implicit subsidies are estimated to be well over $750 billion annually.

I assume the response from someone who defends these oil and gas subsidies would come in some variant of "it's much more nuanced than that", and I would agree.   The same is true for public broadcasting, which has never been funded for the same reason we subsidize specific industries at the state and federal level.   One might argue that we need the oil and gas industry to survive, that it's a defense issue as much as anything.  That's a reasonable argument.  But one could argue the same thing about public broadcasting.  There is no greater threat to our democracy than a poorly educated, disengaged population. There is a particular group of people working hard to ensure that this very thing comes to pass, however, and if one's head isn't entirely up one's ass, the reason for this is abundantly clear.  

Based on the numbers alone, anyone who will defend the subsidies for industries such as oil and gas, which are perfectly capable of running a massive profit with no assistance from the federal or state governments, should kindly shut the fuck up about the pittance that goes to public broadcasting.  I mean, those of us who enjoy fossil fuel-based products can surely just pay more to make up for the loss of billions in free money that industry receives, right?   

We can tackle the insurance industry next, if you'd like (hint: it's in the trillions annually and makes oil and gas look like child's play).   

You say you want to make significant cuts to federal spending that mean something and reduce waste?  You say that for-profit enterprises should be able to survive in the market without government assistance? Most people, regardless of their political affiliation, would likely be in favor of these things.   I've identified two industries in this post alone that would put trillions back in our collective pockets if they were forced to operate as truly capitalist enterprises.   There are plenty more.  But that's not what this is about, is it? It's time to stop hiding behind the complete bulllshit that this has anything to do with reducing spending.  The party of fiscal responsibility no longer exists, if it ever did, and everyone who isn't a bumbling fool knows it. The OBBBA passing alone should be all the evidence a functioning brain needs to understand this. Stop playing fiscally responsible dress up and just admit you enjoy authoritarianism and crushing your perceived enemies under your boot heel.  Why pretend otherwise?  To help you sleep at night?  Tough shit.  Twenty-two percent of this country voted for this, and every last one of them should be held accountable for it, even those who have already come to regret their choice.   The real blame, of course, lies in the hands of those who didn't vote at all and allowed such a small percentage of our population to destroy what has taken 250 years to build.  We can't get that mad at the fools for acting foolish.  It's the disengaged who are truly to blame, and now that we are getting rid of public broadcasting and getting rid of public education, there will be so many more disengaged Americans in the future to assist in the power grab.  Congrats, I suppose, but if there ever was a Pyrrhic victory, this is it.

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