Pathetic

I'm afraid that's my word for Maine Public Television. Throughout nearly all of March they were doing the pledge drive thing. A whole month! An endless cycle of the same old shows – Celtic Women at Slane Castle in Ireland, Yanni at the Forum in Acapulco, Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, My Music, My Generation, the 60s-- endlessly interrupted by lengthy pleas for money. Mind you all of these are good programs, but you can derive pleasure from watching them only so many times, and they were all repeats as it was. And do the folks at MPBN really think people sit there patiently while they beg, during each of those interruptions? Of course not. Most people flip the channel – and if what they find they like, they don't come back. I myself, having no alternative viewing (I do not have cable or satellite, and the only station my rabbit ears pick up is MPBN), I hit the mute button, and go back to reading or working on the computer or whatever, until I notice out of the corner of my eye that the program has started again. Eventually, of course, I got to where I just left the television off.

And here's the thing. We just went through this in December. Not for a whole month, but for about two weeks. And then there was the pledge drive in August. And now, at the end of April/beginning of May there will be the annual auction, when there will be nothing on from 8 p.m. until midnight, for a total of ten days, but these eager folks trying to convince you to place a bid on all sorts of items various businesses and individuals have donated.

Of course, I do realize that what all this begging means is that Maine Public Television is desperate for money. And I guess that's a sad commentary on the state of Maine, that its citizens do not do a better job of supporting what is unquestionably a stimulating and refreshing alternative to awful, awful network television. On the other hand, it's also possible that many people, like me, have given what they can; and for them, there's an end to it.

An article in the Bangor Daily News last month mentioned that employees of MPBN agreed to a pay cut last winter, and 10% of staffing was cut. The Network also considered deactivating a transmission tower in the north of the state, to save money. How-ever, there was a real public outcry about that last move, and it was shelved. (The article made the point that for many people in the sparsely populated northernmost part of the state, MPBN is the only American station viewers are able to get. As one person said, we know more about Canada than what's happening in our own state.) Yes, it's plain they need money badly.

Quite possibly other public television stations across the country are suffering similar drops in public support, just as so many other charitable organizations are. I don't know what the solution is, for these beleaguered stations, but I don't believe it is constant begging. It is especially annoying once you have given. Eventually you want to yell at the screen – exactly as I did one night – I gave already! I don't believe keeping after them and keeping after them is going to make more people feel guilty. If you can give, and you want to, you will; if you can't or don't want to, you won't.

Do you suppose these stations would qualify for some of the stimulus package money? Put some of those people who lost their jobs back to work? And insure that I am able to watch Jim Leher and the News Hour, Bill Moyer's Journal, the NOW New Magazine, Masterpiece Theatre, the occasional nature or music program (the first time it's aired), without having to listen to endless reminders that I'm lucky I have access to all these fine programs, and should therefore send money? It's doubtful, since the arts in general seem to have been an area sorely neglected by The Plan. But some form of government subsidy, as they have in other countries, may indeed be what is needed.

Of course, all those people (like my friend Clifford) who are appalled at how much money the government has already committed itself to spending, are undoubtedly even more appalled at my suggestion. Let 'em sink or swim, may be the attitude. Public television may indeed be in the process of sinking.