It's always interesting in a fall election season to see what your taxpayer dollars are buying at the Public Broadcasting Service. Some might call it an "in-kind contribution" to your friendly local Democratic candidate. Liberals would never favor a McCain-Feingold-style bill that made PBS political programs go off the air in the last 60 days of an election cycle. A colleague sent this notice from TV Guide:
Wednesday, October 4
MOYERS ON AMERICA (new series) PBS 9/8 Central (time may vary by area)
"The always-cerebral Bill Moyers looks at diverse topics in this three-part series. The first explores corruption in politics by focusing on the Jack Abramoff scandal."
This new miniseries will air on the first three Wednesdays in October. Screening the videos on the Moyers site, the first episode, titled "Capitol Crimes," focuses on Abramoff, with a heavy emphasis on the lobbyist in pictures with Ronald Reagan and Tom DeLay. Is there anything more mind-numbingly predictable than Bill Moyers raging against lobbyists? (Unless they're lobbyists for PBS fat cats.)
The second episode, titled "Is God Green?" -- focuses on whether religious conservatives will have the sense to embrace environmentalism or stick with the "sin" of smoggy capitalism. One woman says her former church "didn't care about the environment."
The third episode, "The Net at Risk," thumps the tub for "Net neutrality," with clips of Ed Markey and pop star Moby speaking out with Common Cause in the background.
Remember those funny old days when the liberals were charging that PBS was growing dangerously tilted to the right, what with Friday nights littered by "Tucker Carlson Unfiltered" and the "Journal Editorial Report"? Moyers not only has a show he used to run ("Now"), but he now has another little series of his own. He remains a PBS omnipresence.
