Static on Stein and PBS

Re “Why Foot the Bill for White Kids’ ‘Teletubbies’?” Opinion, July 3: Thank you for this beautifully written satirical piece. I can’t imagine a better advertisement for public broadcasting than this wonderful article, written by an obviously devoted watcher. Writing in the voice of a latter-day Archie Bunker (or his political equivalent), Joel Stein got everything just right, starting with the assertion that regular people hate PBS for the simple reason that it’s just no good.

Using the sneering tone usually reserved for talking about Al Gore, Stein skewers every PBS show from “Clifford the Big Red Dog” to “Frontline.” And, of course, he reserves his most biting wit for Bill Moyers, the arch-symbol of public broadcasting now and forever.

Yes, PBS is aimed at the rich and the white and the well-educated, and even they can’t stand it.

The only drawback is in Stein’s biography, where he admits to going to college -- Stanford, no less -- and teaching at Princeton. He should have said he never went to college, and he’s proud of it. With enemies like Stein, PBS doesn’t need any friends -- but that’s the point, isn’t it?

Suzanne Zaharoni

Beverly Hills

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Stein’s hail-to-the-cable-supreme commentary seems to believe that rich, well-educated white people are the only qualified viewers of PBS to enjoy history, documentaries, coffeetable intellectual exchange between host and talent, and antique appraisals.

If we minorities could read, we would be mighty insulted.

Jane Cuevas Glenn

Los Angeles

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Not wanting to be a knee-jerk fuddy-duddy, I’ve made a point of reserving judgment on Stein’s columns. His article on PBS, however, exposed him for the semi-educated pipsqueak he is. His finding Bill Moyers boring speaks to his deficiencies, not Moyers’.

In Stein’s equation, value is measured by ratings. “American Idol” -- good. Yo-Yo Ma -- bad. And does he really think CNN and MSNBC would fight for “The News Hour” and “Frontline”? Why have they turned out nothing even vaguely equivalent? I’m hoping that Stein doesn’t really think the Disneyfication of “Sesame Street” is a good idea and is just trying to stir up the old folk.

If he’s serious and he’s representative of the younger generation, we’re in deep trouble.

Victoria E. Thompson

Pasadena

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Hooray for Mr. Stein! I know that PBS has become one of the oh-so-many sacred cows of the limo-left crowd and, yes, my kids do watch Barney, “Teletubbies” et al. But I fully agree that the government has no business funding TV or radio stations in the age of cable and satellite broadcasts.

Those like myself who wish to see the PBS stations continue to put on programming are more than capable of helping to fund them privately while, at the same time, they attempt surviving in the real world of the free marketplace.

Thank you, Mr. Stein, for putting into print what I and so many others have been saying for decades.

Keith H. McGrath

Pueblo, Colo.

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Is Stein for real or is he just yanking chains? If you don’t appreciate the interesting and educational content on PBS, then please don’t watch it. Go ahead and fill your empty head with 10 or more minutes of ridiculous commercials, insisting we all need their crappy products, for every 20 minutes of regular TV you watch. I, for one, love PBS’ programming and lack of commercials. I think we as a nation are filled to the brim with rich corporations shoving their products at us constantly. I am sick of watching a “family program” with my children and seeing erectile dysfunction ads.

So, Joel, I have no problem with you and yours filling your heads with junk, but for me and mine, $400 million for higher-quality TV is a drop in the bucket compared with what we spend daily in Iraq for a president’s folly.

Rhonda Hall

Laguna Beach

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Stein’s rant of negatives on PBS is peppered with cute associations and analogies, but is it really a germane issue regarding congressional waste of taxpayer dollars? Aren’t many billions more being spent on such wasteful programs as the F/A-22, V-22 Osprey and the Alaskan antimissile defense systems? Enough perhaps to finance the Iraqi operation “quagmire”? Taboo subjects by all of media these days it seems.

PBS was at one time a good source on the waste of the military-industrial-congressional complex. One day it may be again.

D.J. Ponder

Torrance

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Stein’s Opinion column sneering at PBS can be summed up in two words: excrementitious clackerwaddle.

Art Wild

Long Beach