New Public Media

I can remember watching PBS’s TV show Reading Rainbow when I was 8 years old in my grandmother’s kitchen. I would write down the books featured on each episode and take that list to the library.

The show inspired me to love to read as a kid, something that has stuck with me throughout my life. Unfortunately, my own children will never have the opportunity to watch Reading Rainbow; the program quietly aired its final episode last Friday.

It’s not just my loss. On the air for 26 years, Reading Rainbow inspired not only me, but generations of kids to love to read. And who can forget that theme song?

And the show didn’t go off the air because kids weren’t watching it anymore, or because the Internet replaced it. According to NPR, "The show's run is ending because no one -- not the station, not PBS, not the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- will put up the several hundred thousand dollars needed to renew the show's broadcast rights."

For public broadcasters, it’s not only a matter of will or commitment; increasingly, they simply can’t afford to produce the type of flagship content that is valuable to the public because they are drastically under funded.

As funds for public media continue to diminish, what will replace this vital educational programming? Can I find something like it on a commercial station? No. Yet, commercial broadcasters continue to profit off public airwaves and fight against airing more children’s programming.

Instead of being free to focus on reporting, producing and community building, public media makers are forced to convince Congress every year that they are worthy of the little funding they receive. It shouldn’t be that way.

We need a public media system that can fully serve the public interest, and that means making sure that public media receive sufficient funding to carry out their mission. We can’t afford to lose more valuable programming. With the cancellation of Reading Rainbow, we’ve already lost too much as it is.