Bush hates Elmo

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France -- He also hates Tavis Smiley and Jim Lehrer, too.\nBut mostly, he hates public money being spent on broadcasting quality programming of an educational and worthwhile nature to an America glutting on "American Idol" and "Deal or No Deal." (Note: they have "Deal or No Deal" in France. It's just as bad). \nOur fearless leader, Bush, has proposed his budget, and to no one's surprise, public broadcasting has taken a huge hit. Whereas last year's proposed plan amounted to a 13 percent decrease, this year's could amount to a 25 percent cut in the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's budget. At a time when all broadcast stations have to upgrade to digital television, thereby incurring further heavy costs, Bush wants to further cripple public broadcasting.\nApparently, if our tax dollars are going to fund broadcasting, it had better be propaganda. While Bush's proposed budget slashes public broadcasting again, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which broadcasts American propaganda overseas, finds its budget boosted. That's right: We would rather pay to send public broadcasting to Iran than to our own citizens.\nI don't need to trot out all the old arguments, do I? PBS takes a chance on unconventional programming (Antiques Roadshow, anyone?) that no commercial station would consider. The best documentary on TV this year, "Street Fight," which detailed the gritty mayoral race in Newark, N.J., was shown on PBS's program P.O.V. While others race to the bottom to see whose infotainment polarizes people more, PBS provides varied opinions and reasoned analysis on issues that would be lucky to get a three-minute blurb on any other station. \nThis is my first column from France that isn't about France and that's for good reason. I believe that when the Bush administration targets programs for elimination, it should look at broken programs rather than working ones. I'm going to stand up for public broadcasting, even if I have to stand up every single year to do it. I'm going to stand up for "Live from Lincoln Center" and NPR's "Morning Edition." I'm going to stand up for "Arthur" and "Reading Rainbow." I'll stand up for "Mystery!" "The American Experience" and I will stand up for "Elmo." Who among us can say that these sorts of shows are not a valuable use of public money? And exactly none of them would be on the air if not for public broadcasting.\nFor some perspective, the CPB's 2006 budget of $460 million would pay for little more than one day of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008. It's a small, effective government program that benefits any household in America with a TV. Such exemplary government expenditures deserve to keep running, and it's repulsive to watch public broadcasting used as a Republican hostage for which we have to beg every budget cycle.\nRemember, we won last time. We can do it again. Write your representatives and donate to your local stations. Make it clear that public broadcasting deserves long-term funding. With your help, I hope that by this time next year, I'll have something different to write about.