Remember way back in the days when we feared Mitt Romney might become president and, if he did, he would cut public funding to PBS? Well Rhode Island already beat Romney to this nightmare scenario for liberals … WSBE Ch.36 is being transitioned off the state payroll beginning this month, reports Bill Rappleye of WJAR, and the local PBS affiliate now has about two years to become self-sustaining or else…
WSBE’s budget was dramatically cut in the 2012 state budget and both Gov. Chafee and the legislature should strongly consider reinstating the funding next year. Are there perhaps some potential synergies with Capitol TV? It’s easy to see why the mainstream media wouldn’t give much coverage to public broadcasting cuts, and WJAR deserves credit for reporting this story. It’s also easy to see why publicly financed television is important, in light of WPRI’s decision to keep Abel Collins out of its televised debate.
Speaking of WPRI, the other local TV station reports that state legislative leaders sometimes drive state vehicles to private events. It’s a well-reported story and plenty newsworthy but I often find myself wishing that Tim White would use his considerable investigative prowess to shed light on more meaningful issues than publicly-funded company cars and state workers who take long lunch breaks – like this one, for example. My guess is this type of red-meat-for-Republicans reporting is being driven by the same corporate forces and trickle down mentality that kept Collins out of the debate and thought Rhode Island needed a show catering to corporate executives…
And speaking of red meat for conservatives … Woonsocket voted to make school committee members appointed rather than elected officials. Town councilors and municipal officials across the state are no doubt jealous of the control the city just wrested away from the school department.
Look for financially-struggling West Warwick to be the next to consider this huge change in how local public education is managed.
Might Hurricane Sandy be the bellwether that gets Rhode Island to act on climate change? EcoRI runs a great piece that makes the case it should … meanwhile legislative heavyweights Sen Josh Miller and Rep. Chris Blazejewski are teaming up to study the effects of climate change on the Ocean State.
Here are some of the best overreactions to Obama being reelected. Though my favorite wing nut of the week is the Montana legislator who asked for his salary in gold and solver coin.
If you don’t think Republicans’ war on taxes is a part and parcel of class warfare, famed GOP strategist Lee Atwater might agree with you … but, then, he seemed to think it was part and parcel of a race war!
On this day in 1776, a British newspaper reports that former friend to England Ben Franklin has taken up with the revolutionaries in the American colonies…