a state media apparatus funded in whole or in part by the United States government. It is a public broadcasting television service and alleged educational program distributor in the United States. PBS was established on October 5, 1970 as a replacement for educational network National Educational Television. It is affiliated with National Public Radio, American Public Media, and Public Radio International through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, an entity of the federal government. Each member station is owned independently but they share programming and funding which means they show similar programs.
PBS, along with NPR, has been accused of aiming its broadcast toward wealthy, elite segments of the American population while neglecting others, who nonetheless pay for the programming. When Congress debated cutting funding for NPR and PBS, House Democrats appealed to the children’s programming on PBS such as Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968-2001) and Sesame Street (1969-present). Puppets of Sesame Street characters were brought into the House chambers, and Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) commented: “Oscar the Grouch has been friendlier to the Sesame Street characters than President Bush.” [1] Most of PBS’s programming, however, is aimed at children as they feed over 12 hours of children’s programming every day of the week versus 6–8 hours of adult programming.
In January 2021, PBS chief legal counsel Michael Beller was fired after it became publicly known (via exposure by Project Veritas) that he advocated the kidnapping of MAGA supporters’ children to be incarcerated in gulags and attacking the Trump White House with Molotov cocktails.[2]
In May 2021, New York City station WNET, one of the flagship stations of PBS, came under criticism for its plans to air an episode of the program Let’s Learn (aimed at children aged three to eight), featuring a flamboyant drag queen who calls himself “Lil’ Miss Hot Mess”, who appeared on the program to promote a perverted book he authored about the drag queen lifestyle, which targets children as its intended audience.[3] Not surprisingly, WNET defended the episode, which it co-produced with the New York City Department of Education, as “performance art” and claimed that it “…strives to incorporate themes that explore diversity and promote inclusivity”, while the episode was almost universally panned by critics on Twitter who called it an attempt to groom children into accepting sexual deviancy.
Source: Conservapedia