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CPB seeks to make public broadcasting more accessible to the public it serves. To do so CPB maintains a toll-free, 24-hour telephone line (1-800-272-2190), an online contact form, and accepts letters sent directly to CPB.

All comments are available on this website to be viewed by the general public. Each year, by statute, CPB transmits this public link to the White House for its report to Congress. Additionally, comments pertaining to programming are shared with the CPB Board of Directors and relevant public media staff.

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News Hour

California
Feedback:

Why aren’t you doing the Friday Covid memorials anymore? I thought that was beautiful and a good reminder of what people are going through.

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We welcome all comments about public media’s content and services. However, CPB does not produce, broadcast, or distribute programming, including NewsHour, and is prohibited from interfering with editorial decisions related to programming on PBS or local public television and radio stations. Your comments will have more weight if you contact NewsHour or your local station directly. viewermail@newshour.org.

Programming

California
Feedback:

Im tired of having to pay to watch PBS at all and then my local shows or just crap and the shows that I want to watch I have to pay a separate fee and join a club it used to be perfect that on the weekends it was as time goes by follow up with some other British comedies and now they're gone and it's just one-sided political crap mostly against Republicans

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Although CPB does not produce or distribute programming, we welcome all comments about public media’s content and services. Each local public broadcasting station makes its own programming choices, as CPB is prohibited from interfering with decisions related to programming on local public television and radio stations. Your comments will have more weight if you contact your local station directly.

Judy Woodruff

Minnesota
Feedback:

We watch the Newshour consistently, serving as our best source of truthful and balanced news and insights. However, for the past six months or so, it seems as though Judy has developed an attack mode interviewing style that is off-putting. Is this a ratings increase effort dreamed up by management to be more competitive or is it simply another example of the erosion of the integrity of our discourse? Civility is difficult and cannot be earned by cordiality at the end of an interview. We know you can do much better because we've seen it from her over the years.

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We welcome all comments about public media’s content and services. However, CPB does not produce, broadcast, or distribute programming, including NewsHour, and is prohibited from interfering with editorial decisions related to programming on PBS or local public television and radio stations. Your comments will have more weight if you contact NewsHour or your local station directly. viewermail@newshour.org.

most of yout crap

Illinois
Feedback:

wow sometimes the same program is on two stations at the same time reruns are great , some times even in the same week but not 3 times a week do much crap, the ridiculous “dr” Amen. whats next voodoo pracrice. commercials are understandable, but dont the Koch bros already make money without USING public tv. its what used to be like an unbiased gift to all but now youve just sold your soul

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Although CPB does not produce or distribute programming, we welcome all comments about public media’s content and services. Each local public broadcasting station makes its own programming choices, as CPB is prohibited from interfering with editorial decisions related to programming on local public television and radio stations. Your comments will have more weight if you contact your local station directly.

continual activation

Florida
Feedback:

if public broadcasting is free why should i have to activate each time i would like to watch programing way too much trouble and would seem that it becomes arduous for those people who only watch infrequently i have been watching pbs for fifty years and iti has become a nightmare, . why do i need a password when my taxes pay for PUBLIC tv

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting us with your concern about funding public media and its content. Public media is a public-private partnership relying on multiple sources of funding in addition to the federal investment. PBS stations have always relied on donations from individuals to provide content to local communities and contributions from members to local stations are the largest single source of support for public television. In 2011, Congress asked CPB to produce a report on alternatives to federal funding for public media (PUBLIC LAW 112–74—DEC. 23, 2011). A link to that report can be found below. PBS Passport, which offers extended access to national and local content, is an added benefit of station membership. It cannot be purchased separately and is not a subscription service. This member benefit is a complement to the fundamental service PBS and PBS stations provide -- access to outstanding programming via over-the-air broadcast and through free streaming for a significant time. Every program available via Passport was previously available for streaming to non-Passport Members after the broadcast. Public media continues to offer the broadest access to freely available TV content – over-the-air on local member stations, through digital platforms and in communities across the U.S. Both local and national content is available without charge from stations around the country through a variety of platforms. https://www.cpb.org/files/aboutcpb/Alternative_Sources_of_Funding_for_Public_Broadcasting_Stations.pdf

Advertising

Wisconsin
Feedback:

I am SO disappointed advertising has come to public television. How can these companies say they are contributors/benefactors when we are forced to watch their advertising. Not OK.

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Public media is a public-private partnership in the best tradition of America’s free enterprise system. As part of that public-private partnership, private donations and underwriting combined with the federal investment sustain local public media stations and the services they provide to their communities. FCC rules for non-commercial stations permit contributors of funds to the station to receive on-air acknowledgments. However, unlike commercial media, there are very specific FCC regulations around the kind of language that can be used for messages that air on public media. For more information about these guidelines visit: https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/nature-of-educational-broadcasting

Newshour

Oregon
Feedback:

How bout having a conservative viewpoint since your liberal biased news is taxpayer funded. David is a flaming liberal. Sad. Please provide balance. You do not. Cape hart and Brooks are only giving the liberal media perspective and spins left and does not ask any hard questions. Sad. No press inquisitiveness, just spew liberal blather. Please hire someone that represents the other 50% of America. McNeil and Leyer are vomiting Woodruff and Brooks in projectile fashion.

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We welcome all comments about public media’s content and services. However, CPB is prohibited from interfering with editorial decisions related to programming on PBS or local public television and radio stations. Your comments will have more weight if you contact PBS NewsHour directly: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/contact-us

Music performance rights for indy TV program on a PBS affiliate.

Alabama
Feedback:

As an indy producer, are the song performed in a program I provide to a PBS affiliate covered under the CPB music rights umbrella under which PBS affiliates operate? Thanks.

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. CPB does not advise independent producers on music rights. Please consult with the the mentioned station that is acquiring the program.

WETA

Maryland
Feedback:

Please please please give radio host Linda Carducci another time segment and not the morning slot when I love to listen in. As the mother of a special needs young adult son, her condescending voice is obnoxious, patronizing, and doesn't sound unlike some of the many inclusion teachers my son has had over the years. From Wagner to Beethoven I cringe at her introduction and wait for the day she will extol "Good Job!" after one of her selections. PS: Carducci plays too many waltzes -- no wonder young people feel so disconnected from "white" classical music and no wonder I have to turn off WETA until 10AM when, mercifully, Carducci, vanishes from the air waves.

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). CPB does not produce, broadcast or distribute programming. Please contact WETA with your suggestion: https://weta.org/contact

Fall of Afghanistan reporting

Maryland
Feedback:

I am increasingly disappointed with Judy Woodruff as anchor of the PBS Newshour. Her report tonight on the fall of Afghanistan was particularly hollow. Please give us a fresh format with new anchors, perhaps returning to the show's original co-anchor format. Amna Nawaz and William Brangham would be welcomed replacements. Thank you. Louis D.

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We welcome all comments about public media’s content and services. However, CPB is prohibited from interfering with editorial decisions related to programming on PBS or local public television and radio stations. Your comments will have more weight if you contact PBS NewsHour directly: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/contact-us

afghanistan coverage August 16, 2021

Georgia
Feedback:

I watch the newshour most nights and respect the coverage. I was very disappointed at the biased reporting on Afghanistan, particularly from the woman reporting from the country. It was irrational, with little value except the emotional aftermath of a weak government collapsing. I expect reporting that looks at more than one perspective on the issue!

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We welcome all comments about public media’s content and services. However, CPB is prohibited from interfering with editorial decisions related to programming on PBS or local public television and radio stations. Your comments will have more weight if you contact PBS NewsHour directly: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/contact-us

Pakistani perspective of Afghanistan Judy Woodruff style

New York
Feedback:
After totally eschewing PBS for over a year due to overt political bias, I watched Judy Woodruff interview Prime Minister Khan tonight. She was absolutely fantastic; calm, with no bias, very informative. Where had she gone? I will listen tune in again to see if we are finally able to listen and learn something rather than cringe from overtly hostile body language and supercilious questioning on PBS. I have yet to hear Yamiche....

Negative comments about PBS programming

California
Feedback:
I doubt seriously that negative comments about PBS programming and/or its purported bias are submitted by regular viewers, but rather are submitted as part of a campaign to defund public broadcasting waged by political factions that live in a “post reality” world in which ideology trumps, so to speak, a genuine concern for a reliable picture of the world as it is instead of how they have been led to believe it should be. What these commentators have in common is an unwillingness to accept that political reality is under no obligation to be either reassuring or pleasant. In my judgment, based on four decades of teaching and researching mass media, public broadcasting (whether television or radio) is to a democracy as a clean water and good air quality are to a healthy community.

Brooks and Capehart program on PBS

Minnesota
Feedback:

This program used to be my favorite feature Friday evening. Capehart is such a mouthpiece for Biden and Kamala Harris and so strident in the Democrat propaganda that I have elected to turn off the program when it appears on Friday evening. Mark Shields or is remarkable in his broad perspective on politics. Capehart is just a Democrat who loves to spin the spending siren song.. I am so sorry that he was chosen to be the spokesperson on your Friday evening feature. Thank you, Fred Winston

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We welcome all comments about public media. However, CPB does not produce, broadcast, or distribute programming, including Newshour. Further, CPB does not employ any journalists. Your comments will have more weight if you contact NewsHour: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/contact-us

The weak Strength of the SF PBS Signal

South Dakota
Feedback:

I live At xx, and there is no PBS signal. Zero. Even using 2 Antennas. What excuse is there for any city in America not to provide enough PBS signal strength to reach the whole community? None. Especially since the people have already paid for the PBS services. ? The correct Answer should be, OK we at PBS Will Double And Triple and Quadruple and daily increase the transmitter signal output. Hurray. Kw.

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). CPB does not broadcast programming. Please contact your local station with your technical concerns: https://www.sdpb.org/about/contactus/

idea for a public option social media platform

Maryland
Feedback:

This message and attachment came to the OIGemail hotline. The OIG has responded that it is not our area of responsibility. OIG is forwarding here so that you can send to either strategy and innovation or some other department.

OIG and Board of Directors CPB, I am a 79 year old grandfather……My wife and I, like you and the rest of the Country, are very concerned about Facebook.

There is increasing attention and frustration regarding the negative and even destructive, aspects of this problematic social media platform but few viable ideas to “clean up” the problems.

How about considering a unique approach that doesn’t threaten First Amendment free speech rights and gives people a choice??

I am asking you to consider legislation that would create the possibility of a Public Option Social Media Platform. A nonprofit platform that would offer all of the wonderful original family and friend communication options that are not problematic. There would be no advertising, no personal data collection and no ability to disseminate dangerous false news sources.

Conveniently, the vehicle for this concept already exists. As you know, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a private, nonprofit entity that was created and funded by Congress in 1967. CPB’s mission is to ensure universal access, over-the-air and online, to high-quality content and telecommunications services that are commercial free and free of charge.

Just as National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) were originally designed as public options to commercial radio and television, so would this Public Social Media (PSM) option be available to those who choose to enroll. We can all remember how we, as young parents, chose Sesame Street for our children because it was available as an alternative to commercial TV programs. Why can’t today’s families have an alternative to Facebook?

There would certainly be many challenges to the development of an appropriate Public Option Social Media Platform but it sure looks like the time has come for serious consideration.

On the back is a letter, with more detail, that was never published.

Am I too naive or is this a viable option? Is it possible that we as Americans have a possible legislative solution that would allow us to have the choice to select an appropriate social media platform??

Thank you for taking the time to consider a proud grandfather’s quest for a better future for my granddaughters!

Michael Rolnick Farmington Hills, Michigan 48331 248-763-2916

The next material was attached but Rolnick said he has not sent to NYTIMES New York Times To The Editor: Revelations concerning widespread abuse by many commercially available social media platforms are deeply troubling. These huge platforms have become purveyors of false advertising, both political and commercial, have participated in providing insidious foreign influence and become vehicles for rampant cyber-bullying. Public trust has been violated in numerous ways, including the sale of private information, presumed confidential, the reliance on a lack of user understanding regarding privacy settings and a lack of legislative and self-regulation in the industry. We have all observed a failure to monitor policy and practice until finally compelled by public and political pressures. Most alarming is the willful use of the First Amendment as a shield to ignore or avoid actions that will eliminate abuse and regain public trust with ethical behavior.

There is an approach that would effectively address many of the aforementioned unacceptable realities.That approach would be a Public Option Social Media Platform. A non-profit platform that would offer all of the original family and friend communication options that are not problematic. There would be no advertising and no ability to disseminate false, dangerous or destructive news sources.

Conveniently, the vehicle for this concept already exists. According to its published goals and objectives, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a private, nonprofit corporation created and funded by Congress in 1967. CPB's mission is to ensure universal access, over-the-air and online, to high-quality content and telecommunications services that are commercial free and free of charge. serve.

Just as National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) were originally designed as publjc options to commercial radio and television, so would this Public Social Media (PSM) option be available to those who choose to enroll.

It should be emphasized that this public option, as part of the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, like the proposals for a health care public insurance option, would be a choice to be made by each individual and would in no way be mandatory. In fact, there would be many who would want more than such a public option might offer and choose the commercial options that presently exist. It is also possible that enough individuals would support the public option so that market place forces could generate positive changes in the commercial environment.

There would certainly be many challenges to the development of an appropriate Public Option Social Media Platform but perhaps the time has come in this country for serious consideration.

Michael Rolnick

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. While we welcome all comments about public media’s content and services, CPB is prohibited from lobbying and does not advance legislation in Congress. Public media is continually innovating, using new platforms and technologies to ensure high-quality content is reaching all Americans. CPB supports these efforts by funding content that is distributed through broadcast and multiple digital platforms and by funding public media stations, who continue to expand their reach to audiences online.

Quit being liberal

Florida
Feedback:

I try to watch PBS, but more than it should happen, I have to find another station as the liberal wonks on the news come on. The majority of the programs are great, but PBS is not trustworthy with news. Stuck with documentaries and informational programming and stay away from News. And, the next time am anchor cheats for a presidential candidate, fire Her.

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We welcome all comments about public media’s content and services. However, CPB is prohibited from interfering with editorial decisions related to programming on PBS or local public television and radio stations. Your comments will have more weight if you contact PBS NewsHour directly: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/contact-us

Funding

Pennsylvania
Feedback:

None of the programming CPB supports interests or benefits me. Why do I have to pay for it? You should transition to an advertisement supported platform instead of using money that could be better used for the betterment of all taxpayers.

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The public media system is a public-private partnership relying on funding from a variety of sources to offer its content and services in communities across the country. By law CPB is prohibited from producing, distributing or broadcasting programming. Each local public media station makes their own decisions related to programming. Please contact your local station with your suggestion.

Media/New Hour

Texas
Feedback:

YOU ARE TOO BIASED!!! My God, please stop the bias. You are definitely not serving the American People. You are partisan.

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We welcome all comments about public media’s content and services. However, CPB does not produce, broadcast, or distribute NewsHour and is prohibited from interfering with editorial decisions related to programming on PBS or local public television and radio stations. Your comments will have more weight if you contact NewsHour directly: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/contact-us

Washington Week

Ohio
Feedback:

I appeal to Yamiche Alcindor to stop beginning her questioning of each week’s guests by saying to them that she is going to “turn to you, so-and-so. Talk to me a little bit about ….” It’s a verbal tic that is both annoyingly repetitive and uses many more words than needed to accomplish the same objectives.

Note from CPB: Thank you for contacting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We welcome all comments about public media’s content and services. However, CPB does not produce, broadcast or distribute programming, including NewsHour. Your comments will have more weight if you contact Washington Week directly: https://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/webform/contact