Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 19:06:25 -0800 (PST) From: "Edgar A. Suter" To: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com Subject: PBS & Guns - An Opportunity to sink an enemy This week Sen. Presslar will be holding hearings regarding the privatization of the PBS network and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting - groups that have for years promoted the destruction of not only our gun rights, but also the destruction of many values of traditional American culture. National Public Radio, another enemy of gun rights, has been exhorting its listeners to flood Sen. Presslar with support for PBS/CPB. So, I exhort _YOU_ to show our opposition to the tax-funding of propaganda. If the enemies of freedom wish to use their First Amendment rights to destroy us, let them do so WITHOUT OUR MONEY! Call, FAX, and write NOW showing your support of the PRIVATIZATION of PBS, NPR, and CPB. DIRPP's letter follows: ************************************************************************* * Edgar A. Suter, MD suter@crl.com * * Chair, DIRPP Doctors for Integrity in Research & Public Policy * ************************************************************************* January 16, 1995 Sen. Larry Presslar Senate Office Bldg. Washington DC 20515 re: SUPPORTING privatization of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Dear Sen. Presslar, Our national think tank of physicians, researchers, and medical school professors commends your efforts to privatize the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Our organization has been in the forefront of ongoing efforts to eliminate the tax-funding of politicized "science" through the vehicle of the Centers for Disease Control. We feel equally strongly that tax money should not underwrite politicized television documentaries or entertainment. A few examples come to mind. The 1/9/95 Bill Moyers PBS Special, "What Can We Do About Violence?," spent nearly an hour discussing gun violence from only the perspective of the advocates of gun control. I have personal knowledge that Mr. Moyers was aware of additional data and alternate viewpoints, but presented only a single slanted view. Taxpayers, through CPB, partially underwrote this propagandizing for gun control. In the same week, the PBS network aired the 1/15/95 episode of Inside the Law, more naked proselytizing of gun control without any effort to air even the slightest reference to opposing views and data. Whether the topic is gun prohibition, AIDS, "multiculturalism," or any of a variety of political subjects, CPB and PBS are little more than tax-funded propaganda organs for one political philosophy, the so-called "liberal" philosophy, that was soundly rejected by an overwhelming majority of Americans on November 8, 1994. We also find it objectionable that the enormously profitable Sesame Street series continues to receive tax money. We object neither to Mr. Moyers' right to air his views (whether or not they are minority views) nor to Sesame Street's profitability, but, as embattled tax-payers in times of massive budget deficits that threaten to bankrupt every government program, we do object to tax-funding CPB and PBS. We are pleased that the self-assigned gatekeepers and censors of corporate and "public" media are being marginalized by the public's increasing reliance upon "alternative media" such as Internet. We would be further pleased at the complete elimination of tax-funded polemics and propaganda. We enthusiastically endorse your proposal to privatize CPB and PBS. Americans deserve protection of their right to support the views of their choice. Thank you for your efforts to relieve taxpayers of their forced support of unwelcome views. Best regards, Edgar A. Suter MD National Chair, Doctors for Integrity in Research & Public Policy cc: Mr. Bill Moyers, Public Affairs Television, WNET/13, 356 W. 58th. St., New York, NY 10019. Fax: 212 560 6646. Richard Carlson, CEO, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 901 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004 Mr. Michael Loman, Executive Producer, Children's Television Workshop, 1 Lincoln Plaza, New York, NY 10023