This is going to sound at first like one of our usual rants, but there's a question at the end. I promise.

As mentioned here, PBS has recently undergone another cycle of self-censorship in response to administration punishment-- although in this case it may be anticipated punishment.

Coming as this does on the heels of the decision to yank a segment of a children's program because it included a scene with a (real) child who has lesbian parents, gotten me thinking about the current value of Public Television.

A further example: when we recently watched this Nature episode about orangutans in Indonesia, I was mesmerized by the beautiful footage and shocked by the complete lack of scientific content in the presentation. (The animals were anthropomorphized to an astonishing degree, and a great deal of narration was spent describing the personality of "Kusasi;" there was no attempt to educate viewers about anything of substance).

Add the increasing number of bland, contentless cartoons on PBS (to say nothing of vehicles for conservative moralizing), and one has to ask today's question:

Is there anything of real value left on PBS? If they have become a political football, and funding can only be spent on programming that is inoffensive and bland, why not do something else with it?

I await your wisdom on this subject....