Big Bird recipe humor aside, the funding of a broadcaster by the government is a horrible idea. In Canada, we have the CBC which receives in the excess of 1 billion dollars in public money, and has become a landing strip for lefty a$$holes. In addition, they have a real economic impact on the private media with the ability to outbid, and essentially economically destroy organizations which challenge the lefty world view. In a very real sense, they were responsible for decades of socialist domination of Canadian politics by their financial control of the market. To best describe the situation, always think of times 10, when comparison between countries. What do you thing would happen to the media if your PBS was given 10 billion dollars annually, with the ability to underbid private television, for advertisement, and further, could dictate to independents, what was news under threats of economic punishment if they strayed.