I just watched this video from Penn Jillette, talking about the US government cutting funding to NPR, a public service radio station in the US. Now, I’ve never had much of a chance to listen to NPR, but from what I hear, they have a lot of valid programming, and do a very good service. Penn, himself, agrees with this fact. Now, I’ve you’ve watched the above video (which I recommend you do), you’ll find he’s unhappy with the government funding any sort of broadcasting. In his words, he says “What. The. Fuck.” Oddly enough, my response to his opinion was similar. Penn has every right to say his point of view, and I agree with him on a number of issues, despite him being a hardcore libertarian. However, there is so much wrong with his point of view that I felt it necessary to make a response.
Here in little ol’ New Zealand, we face similar issues of cuts to public broadcasting. TVNZ7 is on it’s way out, and Radio New Zealand is constantly under threat. The situation is probably quite different, to be fair. In NZ, we can’t really afford not to have government funded broadcasting, because there probably wouldn’t be enough variety if we didn’t. Further, any news or media would come from private interests, which really is far worse than having the government involved. Penn disagrees with that in the video, but let me explain.
Private interests are just that – private. They have no need to provide content that the public may find helpful, and can broadcast anything that provides them with more money, more attention, more publicity, more whatever. The government, however, exists purely to serve the people. The people vote representatives into office, and if you’re ruling, it’s because the majority wants you there (this is disputable, but in most democracy’s, this is true). It’s the job of the government to serve those people. Not to make more money, not to gain publicity. If they are there to do that, they should be (and usually are) voted out. In this case, regardless of how corrupt you feel the government is, I would rather have a conglomerate of numerous elected officials who could be voted out for doing a poor job, than one media mogul like Rupert Murdoch, who has no one threatening to remove him from his position. What this boils down to is a huge lack of faith in the role of the government, which I feel is wholly unfair.
Penn also says he’s happy to pay more, and have the government not involved in the funding of a public broadcaster. Fine. You can pay that $10 million, Penn. Oh wait, you can’t? Of course you can’t. And you know what, some people CAN’T FUCKING AFFORD TO PAY FOR THEIR NEWS CONTENT! Surely every person has a right to access information, and public broadcasters like NPR help spread that information. That’s why things like the pay wall on the New York Times is so incredibly wrong. If every broadcaster is suddenly charging you hundreds of dollars a month to access their content, then first of all, that’s a very expensive way of staying informed. Further, you would probably only pay for access to one or two outlets, meaning you have no variety in your content. Once again, the masses stay uninformed. It sickens me to think of a society where people have to pay money to get news sent or broadcasted to them.
Frankly, public service broadcasters, and their public funding, is really the best way to ensure people are remaining informed, and not ignorant. Problems of government influence on the news can be avoided. I know how much you hate government legislating, but legislation could prove hugely important in ensuring full access to information. Why not make it compulsory for the government to make a level of funding available for public service broadcasters, and at the same time, legislate against the government having any involvement in what content goes to press or air? It seems like legislation legislating legislation, but it works.
And for the New Zealand case. TVNZ7 was a fantastic broadcaster. The fact that they are being forced to close is incredibly sad. RNZ is one of the best radio stations in New Zealand, and needs to stay alive. If it was to ever die, it would be a dark day for this country. Let’s hope the National government doesn’t do anything else stupid.
