UCI Public Broadcasting & American Government Discussion

write up to 300 words to justify the case for one side

Pro:  The United States needs to invest substantial amounts of money in public broadcasting, just like most other established democracies. A major non-profit public broadcasting system would present balanced views of the issues to the American people and give viewers a better understanding of politics. Political polarization would be reduced by exposing everyone to serious discussion of public policy as opposed to today’s focus on sensationalizing stories for profit.

Con:  Investing more money in non-profit public broadcasting would be a big waste of taxpayer dollars. People tune into news programs for entertainment as well as for information. Americans prefer media sensationalism over serious balanced discussion of the issues that is the hallmark of public broadcasting. We cannot reduce political polarization by exposing everyone to boring television news. People will just change the channel to something more interesting.