News Intelligence Analysis
[Editor's note: the television executive's name has been disguised and the letters have been slightly edited for this format. The letters were not written with publication in mind.]
The Fate of America's Public Broadcasting
An Exchange of Letters Between "T. J." and Katherine Yurica
To: K.Yurica
RE: Public Broadcasting and Tom DeLay's "Meter"
It almost doesn't matter anymore. The censorship -- both institutionally and individually -- has become so pervasive that little is left. Everyone operates on the DeLay meter -- if it would offend Tom DeLay, it can't go on. With that mindset, why bother?
T.J.
Dear TJ,
I clearly don't have all the information I need to respond to
your email, but I feel compelled to speak--even from my ignorance
and even knowing that it is presumptuous on my part to do so.
I'm hoping you will forgive my impulse, but I can't bear to hear
a talented young person say “Why bother?” There have
always been and there always will be enormous odds against a
creative mind. But there is no power on earth that can stop the
truth from coming out. Galileo may have been forced to recant,
but the power and truth of his observations could not be nullified
or suppressed by the militant church nor any other institution.
Tom DeLay's power isn't comparable to the church's power during
Galileo's life time. He is no measure of power or authority for
anyone. The man is a mere cockroach in the halls of historical
political power. How can you be defeated by something as small
as a cockroach? How can truth be deterred by such a small minded
mean spirited individual? That he has some power--I do not deny,
but how can his half a cup of power deter the force of a living
spirit of truth and justice? Yours is the earth and everything
in it. His is the tyranny of the delusion of fear. His political
grounds are fatuous and delusional. You take your sustenance
from a different fount. William James, the great American psychologist
wrote a famous essay, “The Will to Believe” that has
influenced Americans since 1896. In his companion essay, “Is
Life Worth Living?” James wrote:
“It
is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that
we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified
result is the only thing that makes the result come true.”
He tells his readers,
“You
make one or the other of two possible universes true by your
trust or mistrust,--both universes having been only maybes, in
this particular, before you contributed your act.”
Believe that Tom Delay's meter is the measure of all things
and it will be. Believe that the ideals of Truth and Justice
are the real meters beating in the hearts of all Americans and
it will be the universe you and your children will inherit. Ask
not what offends Tom Delay, ask what offends the standards of
America's search for Truth? Ask any man--conservative or liberal
and he will tell you, “It's better to live by the truth
than to live by the lie.” If all men know this as a principle
then use the principle to force them to willingly raise that
standard high! Boldly proclaim the superiority of truth as a
standard and who among us would dare insert his mean preferences?
We are in a cultural war, but it is a war none-the-less unto
death. Proponents of control must kill our freedom of speech
and expression before they can kill our people.
Winston Churchill's speeches during WWII should never be forgotten
by Americans. In the darkest hours when the fate of Great Britain
hung by a thread, Churchill rose in the House of Commons, his
booming voice rolling through the chamber. “We shall go
on to the end,” he roared, to a rising chorus of cheers,
“… we shall fight on the seas and oceans… we shall
fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight
in the hills; we shall never surrender…”
Never, never, never give up. FDR said at Oxford in 1941:
“We,
too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to
fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as
deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our
knees.”
Don't ever be afraid to fight for what you believe in. And
fighting doesn't mean picking up the sword--to the contrary,
it most often means using the weapons of narrative, imagery and
the simple retelling of powerful truths. Art will defeat the
lie every time!
Best Regards,
K. Y.
Dear Katherine:
Thank you for your eloquent response to my note of frustration about PBS and thank you too for calling me a young person. I will be marking my 50th this summer and I don't recall when someone last called me a young person.
You are right to acknowledge that the truth does eventually come out. However, it can take a hell of a long time. To this day, public schools still teach the mythology of the white man.
My frustration with PBS comes from having spent more than 25 years in television, a majority being in public broadcasting. I have seen PBS continually cave into the right wing forces in Congress and in the nation. They have continually proven to be a spineless group worried more about their jobs than anything else. As a result, we have seen PBS, once a beacon of originality and creativity become little more than an identity-less blob. However, we are witnessing a troubling shift with public broadcasting. It seems the right is not content to simply leave PBS as a hollow shell of its former self. Instead, they have realized that they can use it to their extremist advantage. Look at the new line up of shows and you will see more and more conservative voices....
The level of censorship is so great it is truly mind boggling. What you hear of in the alternative press is just the tip of a massive nightmare. I have never seen a time in my life when the darkness has been so great. Yes, there are murmurs of hope as even a few in the corporate media begin questioning but all they are questioning is the window dressing, not the massive structure that surrounds the window.
To return to our original point -- supporting PBS -- one must realize that those currently in power view PBS not as public but rather government broadcasting and they are attempting to remake both PBS & NPR into their mouthpieces. It is being done so subtly yet so powerfully that you will not recognize it. Good people are scared, they don't want to loose their jobs and go along -- the parallels to Nazi Germany are chilling.
I guess I am a bit cynical these days when it comes to Public Broadcasting.
TJ
Dear TJ,
After reading your response and feeling awful about what you've personally seen and experienced, I decided to focus very narrowly and consult the seat of wisdom at my house.
So I shouted upstairs, "Mom, what'll I do? I just called TJ a "talented young person" and he says he's 49 going on 50?" "Tell him," she shouted back, "I'm 82 going on 83 and the both of you are nothing but young whippersnappers to me!"
So not liking that very much I said, "Well what do you say about the right wing wanting to take over PBS?"
"I say nuts!"
I think my mom is referring to the U. S. General who was surrounded by German soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge in WWII. The German commander invited the U.S. General to surrender. The U.S. General wrote back: "Nuts!"
It's time we start saying, "Nuts!" to the right wingers, don't you think?
K. Y.
I agree.
T.J.
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