Infomaniac: WeBlog

Overheard on the Web, and other Web links From The Herald's Research Editor

Is public broadcasting in danger...or not? 

For the last nearly 10 years, people have been forwarding an emailed petition claiming that PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are in danger of losing their funding. The letter campaign was started by two college students in 1995 and at the time there was a proposal in Congress.
But the email gained a life of its own and periodically resurfaced. I've gotten it from two or three correspondents in the last year....and usually one of the people who they sent it to would reply setting them straight, and then there'd be an apology.
But now, a story in the New York Times Week in Review section says MoveOn.org is sending out a new petition about a new funding cut threat. What they have to do now is convince people that the new email isn't about that old petition. Here's the explanation at UrbanLegends.About.com, and Snopes.com.
So if you get a petition in the mail about public broadcasting spending cuts, double check it. It may actually be something worth looking at. (Here's The petition at Moveon.org.)

(Via J.D. Lasica.)

posted by liz at 7:14 PM