Right-Wing Bias of PBS

[sag111 (imported)]

ok so why cant we get the Red Green show in Sacramento is it to far to that left or just to far out

[Blaise (imported)]

Well, we all definitely know that the Red Green Show has no right-wing bias. In fact, it is probably one of the best advertisements for a public health-care system in existence. Add to that the fact that most of the characters have no visible means of support, one is a tree-hugger (and possibly does more than just hug them), and one is... well..... Harold, I'd have to say there is quite a definite tilt to the left on the show.

Yes, that is a left-wing show--definitely. Red Green--it is Red to the core. In addition, it is funny--something American sit-coms are not.

[Blaise (imported)]

Yes, that is a left-wing show--definitely. Red Green--it is Red to the core. In addition, it is funny--something American sit-coms are not.

Of course, we do not get it is in Baton Rouge. We get Lawrence Welk. Now, that is a right-wing show.

[A-1 (imported)]

Lawrence Welk's wings have been clipped.

He is indeed "flying low"

6 feet under ground...

A-1

[Blaise (imported)]

Lawrence Welk's wings have been clipped.

He is indeed "flying low"

6 feet under ground...

A-1

In Baton Rouge, he flies every Saturday night.

[A-1 (imported)]

Softee,

There is only one place in America where more Ghosts walk the street than in Baton Rouge, and that is New Orleans... small wonder he's still on the air...



A-1

[Riverwind (imported)]

In Baton Rouge, he flies every Saturday night.

You have my deepest sympathy,

River

Talking about citcoms, remember All in the Family and Mash, both were as you say Red. Show me one thats to the right thats funny.

River

[An Onymus (imported)]

The "Lawrence Welk Orchestra" outlived Welk himself (the PBS shows, of course, are reruns from the 1970's and earlier), and was still doing dates a couple of years ago. I think they may have played Branson, Missouri, and might still be doing the bubbly bit.

[bobov (imported)]

Riverwind, I haven't owned a tv in over 25 years, so I may be the wrong person to ask this question, but ... is there such a thing as a right-wing sitcom? The bias of network tv being what it is, I would be surprised to learn that they broadcast one. It doesn't mean much to say there are no funny right-wing sitcoms if there are no right-wing sitcoms. Thinking back to pre-history, when I still watched tv, I can think of plenty that reflected the normative values of the 1950s - The Honeymooners, Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, Ozzie and Harriett, Leave It to Beaver, The Phil Silvers Show, etc. These shows were and are funny, which is why they're still watched. And they all assumed a world based on those values leftists love to hate. Watching them today, we can only lament that our society has made so much "progress."

[bobov (imported)]

When I was a teen, my friends and I made a cult of scorning Lawrence Welk. He wasn't rock. He wasn't classical. His was the music our dreaded parents liked. All the out-of-it old farts who were scared by the Beatles and bored by Bach liked Lawrence and those bubbles. Despising Lawrence Welk became a touchstone of our generation. He was said to symbolize all the decaying retrograde sentiments of the rotten civilization we golden youth were going to replace at any moment.

Well, now that I'm an out-of-it old fart, I have the courage to ask why Lawrence Welk deserves to be so demonized. He played popular old tunes in a square straightforward style, plus bubbles. Sophisticated? No. Revolutionary? No. Complex? No. It was plain music for plain folk. It was working-class music for average joes after a hard week at the "plant." (Strange, in retrospect, how important it was in the "60s" to overthrow working-class values with upper middle class values.) Well, so what? Music was never as important as we made it out to be - the supremacy of Mick Jagger over Lawrence Welk didn't change the world. Our "revolutionary" tastes in consumption were just the basis of a new business. (Note that Welk performed on free tv; to be "revolutionary," you needed to buy albums, stereos, etc., with money provided by your Lawrence Welk-loving parents.)

After all these years, I've got to ask - so what if our embarassing prole parents enjoyed Lawrence Welk and his simple renditions of familiar tunes? You don't have to like Welk yourself, but a little tolerance for others (a liberal value!) might be in order.