Someone please help me make sense of conserves hatred of PBS

[Springslips]

They want to cut PBS because "we can't afford it."

They say people don't watch PBS because it has programming that people don't like.

And they think private media can do a better job than the government because of the free market.

But Hollywood, they say, is evil, a liberal plot that hates American values and corrupts our children.
They want censorship.

Yet they believe in strong property right and a small government that can't threaten those rights.

But they say private companies like MGM, Disney, Fox, Time Warner can do a better job because they give people what they want--not like PBS.

So, they want the government, who they say isn't as good as free market companies, like Hollywood, to control the products provide by them, to uphold American values, even though that would violate ( by their construct of the term) company property right, and they don't want to raise taxes to save PBS because depriving companies of money is wrong, even if telling them what to do with their money is right, by a government they say produces programming that people don't watch, and the free market can do better, yet......"

I have to stop. I am getting dizzy just writing this.

They make no sense.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. It's because it's the PUBLIC Broadcasting System.

Public everything is bad. Nothing should be taxpayer-supported - not public television, public radio, public transportation, public parks, public swimming pools, public schools. If it's public it's bad.

[joycejnr]

2. Children are not taught to be conservative on Sesame Street...

...they are taught to share, to have empathy for others, and to show compassion for those less fortunate - Conservative anathemas. The public funding is frosting on the cake for them.

Oh, then there's those pesky shows on "science."

My God, I hate Conservatives.

[MichiganVote]

11. Bingo!

[Generic Brad]

3. It's a benefit for the living

They only give a shit about the mythical "unborn".

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Actually it is easy to understand

NOVA (SCIENCE)

Frontline (Current affairs, fairly little spin)

Sesame Street (getting kids ready for school for a few decades now... kids read, curiosity)

American Experience. (They have dared to be critical of Conservative heroes like McCarthy)

Nature (More science, EEKKK RUN, baby jesus will eat you)

I could go on. But this is truly why they want to kill it. This is part and parcel of American Anti Intellectualism at it's finest.

Oh and welcome to DU

[BlueStreak]

17. Yes, and more generally, there is a strong demographic difference

Both parties draw from multiple constituencies, and those constituencies have radically different educational profiles. The table at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_ideologies_in_the_United_States is as good as any. I think it is fair to say that those who are vocally supportive of public broadcasting are largely in the "liberal" column, and those who are most opposed to is are well represented in the "social conservative" column. You can see radical difference in education levels and income between those two columns.

Those who value education are more likely to value public broadcasting. Those who haven't done much with education are naturally more hostile to programming that is more challenging than Everybody Loves Raymond and Honey Boo Boo.

And many of those social conservatives are downright afraid of knowledge, regardless of where it comes from.

And then there is that column called "Enterprisers". This is the "We made that" crowd that has an antipathy from any government activity, except of course all the government contracts that make them money.

[MadHound]

5. It really doesn't make any sense any way you look at it.

The underlying reason they want to cut PBS is that, going back to the eighties or so, the rabid right wing believes that PBS and NPR are engaged in some sort of sinister plot to indoctrinate people, especially children, into some sort of liberal/communist/anti-American worldview that will wind up bringing the country as they know it to an end at some indefinite point in the future.

Does it make sense, no. But that is the general gist of what hatemongers like Rush and Beck all preach. I think it was originally a Bircher conspiracy theory, but I'm not for sure.

[CBHagman]

21. Ironic, isn't it.

Newt Gingrich famously derided public broadcasting as "an elitist enterprise" and declared "Rush Limbaugh is public broadcasting."

So some widow in Buffalo watching Masterpiece or Great Performances or a profile of Louisa May Alcott is urged to abandon her "elitist" entertainments and listen to someone with multiple failed marriages and a generally checkered background. What's wrong with this picture?

[wtmusic]

6. Actually it's very simple:

Corporate interests can control the message on networks via advertising dollars.

[Indpndnt]

7. Education is evil to them. They especially don't want anyone to see this:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/

Because they're just that stupid and they really, REALLY want everyone to be just as stupid. Education and knowledge both elude and terrify them.

[former-republican]

19. Hammer meet nail

[desertduck]

8. it encourages LEARNING& is based on facts and SCIENCE. lord knows, they don't like science and they

like their folks to be a little on the dumb side.

[MichiganVote]

9. "Well, I don't understand! You know everything was just fine. Why does it have to be this way?"

"Give me one good reason!"

Big Bird on the death of Mr. Hooper

[BeyondGeography]

10. Because we love it

[d_r]

12. it is for smart people

[JHB]

13. Several reasons:

1) Some of them are just ideologically opposed to any government function that didn't exist in the Gilded Age/Robber Baron Era. That's their benchmark for "small government" (except for the military, of course).

2) An overlapping group: those who are unable to distinguish between a government-funded program and a Stalinist police state. It's all "socialism".

3) Another overlapping group: Believes PBS = Soviet Pravda (sort of a specialized aspect of #2): they believe all it broadcasts is "liberal propaganda". That's not even close to true, but they feel especially entitled to rail against it because "their money" helps support programming that fails to cheerlead their pet causes.

4) Still another overlapping group: conservative religious broadcasters, because every dollar that Granny sends to a PBS station because she likes nature shows is money that she fails to support God's work (which is their euphemism for their ministry and bank account).

5) The whole interlocking cluster of them have a fantastically-inflated idea of how much of their tax money goes to it.

6) Those who flog PBS because it keeps the above distracted.

[sendero]

14. This is all about religion....

... as PBS is pretty secular in nature. And when you start talking about religion you can throw logic, reason and even common sense into the gutter.

[modem77]

15. Most conservatives I know have ADHD bad.

If it doesn't have lots of action, gun fire, explosions, they don't like it. They also see being kind and caring as a sign of weakness.

[reformist2]

16. Sadly, conservatives don't like others putting new ideas into their heads, or their kids' heads.

Only pre-approved ideas are allowed. It's all quite circular - kind of a closed loop.

[CBHagman]

18. One more I'd add to your list is the GOP's lip service to local communities...

...and the heartland, particularly rural areas.

Yet if the plan to cut public broadcasting funding went through, it would be the rural areas that would have a harder time keeping their public stations.

And for all that Republicans love to say that states, counties, and towns are more in tune with the needs of the people they serve, Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY) did used to say that she thought Congress should "smack the heck out of" PBS affiliates that showed a program about promoting tolerance and acceptance of GLBT folks.

[Ikonoklast]

20. Them people say big words on them shows, tryin' to make me feel stupid.

But I isn't.

[Hugin]

22. This hearkens back to the "Great Spongebob War" of aught-four, I reckon.

Yup, it does...

Takes me back to my youth here at ol' Fort DU.

We were lined up on the ramparts every hand scared and General Skinner stands up and yells... "Give'm hell!"

Mind you... The fighting was all fierce. Hand to hand. Eyeball to Eyeball.

We lost many a brave patriot in those battles.

'scuse, I got something in my eye.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, there was smoke everywhere... and blood! Curses were made and cannon fire echoed through the night.

Entire graveyards were filled with the remains of disruptors of all sorts and many of our own Brothers and Sisters.

But, we did it! We were proud to fight for the rights of our little highly absorbent sea friends!

When the battle was over and the sky blue again... Those that study these things told us what it was all about.

You see... There are those who don't want to compete with quality. Spongebob got better ratings than those babbling religious shows and other mindless crap filling the airways. There was a message out there that the Right Wing was not able to control and people were liking it. So, it had to go.

The reasons are entirely the same now. The only difference is what is offered in place of PBS is even worse than it was then... I mean, shows about the Palin Family? Any of them, come on!