Comment

How the Privatization of NASA's The Learning Channel devolved into a for-profit channel pushing Honey Boo Boo

10
Destro10/05/2012 6:03:00 pm PDT

re: #4 Daniel Ballard

Does anyone remember the Mutual Of Omahas “Wild Kingdom”? Privately funded by an insurance company. How about Beakmans world? Commercial TV.
For a far more contemporary example we have Through The Wormhole.
[Link: science.discovery.com…]
Winged Planet?

My point is that good educational programming can and has been done by the private sector. I’m not saying to de fund PBS. I’d like too have both. I am saying that there is to this very day lots of quality science programming on from the private sector.

So given the premise above how do we explain all that good science and education programming since Reagan that did not go all Honey Boo Boo?

re: #9 diamonda2u

The television standards from that era where Mutual Of Omahas “Wild Kingdom” were on were different. Children’s programs had to be by law educational. Television had to provide a public service to get to use the people’s airwaves (news was a loss leader and was not there to make money but to satisfy that public service aspect).

Children’s shows until Reagan de-regulated TV could not be based around a toy line and serve as a commercial for the toys.

I love GI Joe cartoons like any one (see my name) but the show would not have been made if Reagan did not deregulate. In any case the end of the GI Joe cartoon had some sort of life lesson and I think it was there to satisfy some last vestige of the regulations for children’s shows.