When George Romney was Governor of Michigan, he held a news conference and said “I’m as conservative as the Constitution, as liberal as Lincoln and as progressive as Theodore Roosevelt. Critical thinkers never accept labels as a way to define a person and should not be accepted as definitions for the concepts within public television’s programs. Public Radio and TV are about substantive solutions to real issues of policy and of conscience, and the substance is more important than the label.

People who choose to label do an injustice to any idea or person, although they achieve the benefit of stigmatizing the complex for the convenience of lazy thinkers. The use of labeling contributes to the superficiality of understanding a person, institution, issue or ideology by pandering to the simplistic.

A thinking person views issues from all perspectives and enjoys the challenge of ideas and people with thoughts that vary from their own. Mostly, they are attracted by new people with new ideas. New ways of thinking give them hope that people can break out of the patterns of past errors, deliberate or honest.

Commerce and institutions, media or otherwise, are fraught with the corporate and politically powerful attempting to control access to information and to eliminate critical thinking. Talk and written word media entertainers lull emotional non-thinkers with labels and name-calling, the equivalent to labeling. They try to hide the fact that they themselves lack the knowledge base or competence to have a discussion of issues based on facts and perspective within a broad context. There is nothing to be gained by allowing your space to be invaded by those folks who already consume too much precious time with their vacuous labels.

Think about it:
When public broadcasting airs ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, public broadcasting is playing it safe and appealing to a mass audience.
When public broadcasting airs EGG: THE ARTS SHOW, public broadcasting is going out on a limb with this obscure artsy stuff for eggheads.
When public broadcasting plays SCHOOL: THE STORY OF AMERICAN PUBLIC EDUCATION, public broadcasting is selling out to the teachers’ unions.
When public broadcasting airs NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, public broadcasting sells out to corporate interests.
When public broadcasting airs WWII: BATTLEFORCE, public broadcasting caters to old white males.
When public broadcasting airs P.O.V., public broadcasting caters to marginalized voices who aren’t in our market.
When public broadcasting airs METROPOLITAN OPERA, public broadcasting is elitist.
When public broadcasting airs RED GREEN, public broadcasting is stooping to guy comedy.
When public broadcasting airs [insert kids show title here], public broadcasting is letting their producers get rich on merchandising.
When public broadcasting airs [insert kids show title here], it’s all part of a merchandising ploy to line our pockets. {See recent GAO report for factual data.]
When public broadcasting airs NEWSHOUR, public broadcasting is boring.
When public broadcasting airs FRONTLINE on “American Porn,” public broadcasting is being sensational.
When public broadcasting airs NOW WITH BILL MOYERS, public broadcasting is liberal.
When public broadcasting airs AMAZING GRACE, public broadcasting is liberal because … dammit, Bill Moyers is in it!
When public broadcasting airs MCLAUGHLIN GROUP, public broadcasting is conservative.
When public broadcasting airs AFRICANS IN AMERICA, public broadcasting is caving in to a minority lobby.
When public broadcasting airs ADVENTURES FROM THE BOOK OF VIRTUES, public broadcasting is caving in to the family values lobby.
When public broadcasting airs CHARLIE ROSE on Tuesday, public broadcasting caters to academicians whose viewpoint nobody cares about.
When public broadcasting airs CHARLIE ROSE on Public Wednesday, public broadcasting caters to Hollywood stars who get far too much publicity.
When public broadcasting airs TRACKS AHEAD, GREAT LAKES GARDENER, OUTDOOR WISCONSIN, AND ORQUESTA ARAGON, public broadcasting is just plan smart.
And so it goes. There is virtually no show that can’t have a spin put on it to yield ample criticism and more lame evidence of why public broadcasting is (affix label here).

Put a liberal and a conservative in the same room and let them figure out how public television can be so liberal and conservative at the same time. Public broadcasting is like a thermos. Public broadcasting keeps hot beverages hot, and cold beverages cold. But… how does public broadcasting know the difference?

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars…

Al

I don’t think the program exaggerated much, if at all. I stopped a couple of Marine recruiters in a mall the other day for a chat. They did not know me from Adam (retired rank-wise) but it was Yes sir, no sir, and polite attention to everything I said–trite though it was. I visit a Marine base periodically and the treatment is just the same. A Marine in uniform is a model citizen because he or she really feels a responsibility to represent the service positively.

So far as the allegations against a few, very few, Marines in Iraq. Before anyone points fingers, they need to visit some of the blogs which detail the conditions and the enemy these Marines face. (You won’t find much in the MSM) Rather than being shocked at the alleged transgressions, a fair reader would be amazed at the courage and restraint that is the general rule.

As an old Sailor, I hardly qualified as a Marine lover. I was trained by them; served next to them for extended periods; and yes, have many friends among them. They can be incredibly arrogant, and often treat bull-headedness as an art form. As a country we are very fortunate to have them.