Conservatives, of course, have been railing against taxpayer underwriting of public TV for almost all 25 years of its existence. This time, though, PBS’s supporters may have overreacted. Op-ed pages blared with charges that right-wing groups were about to “Pull the plug” on the entire system-in effect, “kill Big Bird.” Yet judging from the funding bill’s margin of victory-a whopping 84-11–Public TV enjoys hit status in Washington. “It’s an overwhelming vote of confidence,” says Jennifer Lawson, PBS’s national programming chief Nonetheless, Lawson vows to “redouble our efforts to demonstrate the continuing value of public television.” Documentary maker Ken Burns, for one, needs no convincing. “Public TV is a lonely outpost of arts and culture amidst a sea of absolute dreck,” says Burns. “And it’s the only place that would have let me do ‘The Civil War’.” Of course, expect both sides to take up arms again in 1996.
