PBS and Playing the Long Game

As I write this, PBS recently ended its public diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. I didn't hear about this through a public announcement or press release; I heard about it because of social media lambasting against PBS’s public accounts.

The public statement that PBS made on Threads was solemn and filled with regret. It begged readers to continue watching while they navigated a period of struggle. Given their founding charter and literal decades of track record, it's a safe assumption that PBS did not choose to end these programs willfully but was under implied executive pressure from the Trump administration. Or that they were proactively trying to circumvent that pressure. Funding for public programs is at risk, of course, though government funds only make up a subset of PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s budget. PBS also relies on something else from its government support- broadcast licenses via the FCC. Though it’s easily overlooked due to the prevalence of modern streaming services, PBS is the only public good institution that can be beamed into every household in the country either free of charge or at an extremely low cost via digital antennas. That's more accessible than any app or streaming service for reaching the entire nation’s population. Let alone that PBS educates the whole country, from infants to our elders.

I won’t link to specific comments, but the social media pile-on was swift and loud, though a minority of the responses. Thankfully, people throughout the comments rose to defend the institution. But it reinforced a painful stereotype about self-identified progressives- attacking their members in the short term at the expense of the long. "Eating their own" is another commonly-used phrasing of this behavior.

A statement I've heard over the past few weeks is "these next few months are going to be tough" or "the next few years", as if there's going to be some break or end state. This will not happen. There will not be a button or cinematic end or conclusion where the credits roll, and we all go home and live happily ever after. The work will not stop. It will take decades. The work will likely outlive you. PBS has existed for 56 years, and (with our persistence and collective effort) it can last for over 200 more years. Long after I'm gone. Long after my child, who loves PBS Kids, will be gone. Long after their children, if they chose to have them, are gone.

So start playing the long game. Yes, hold institutions and peer groups accountable. But when these groups are "down" or struggling under greater forces of oppression, don't kick them. Help them, support them.

Fight for the next 200 years. And beyond.