Dear PBS News Hour Staff--
I am upset and appalled at the placement of a PBS News Hour donation solicitation featuring two old white people which cut into the reporting about systemic racism in America and the interview with Black men in Minneapolis who were accused by an old white man of using a gym without permission.
Just in the middle of a statement by one of the men, the was a "commercial" interruption of two old white people asking for donations to PBS and specifically in support of the PBS News Hour. This was absolutely appalling! At this point in time, there could not have been worse timing. This donation ask last for for SIX MINUTES! There was important information that was being shared and this pledge pitch cut into the news. Six minutes late, when the pitch was done, the viewers were returned to the PBS News Hour SIX MINUTES further into the broadcast. We were not returned to where the interruption happened. Even more disturbing was that the PBS News Hour ended one minute later, at 7:54. This means there were SIX MINUTES until the top of the hour, when the next program was starting. That pledge pitch didn't have to interrupt the News Hour.
You literally interrupted a young Black man in the middle of an interview, showed us two old white people asking for donations to PBS and the PBS News Hour and they kept going on and on about the great tote bag the we will all be able to carry around to prove we are part of the same community...
MY COMMUNITY WOULD NOT HAVE INTERRUPTED IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT RACIAL INJUSTICE IN AMERICA TO ASK FOR DONATIONS AND DISCUSS THE MERITS OF HAVING MATCHING TOTE BAGS!
This is outrageous.
You should be embarrassed and ashamed.
Sincerely,
Tiza Garland