Ken Burns pens op-ed in support of PBS

In a piece for the Los Angeles Times, Ken Burns responds to "grandstanding politicians who believe that public television must be de-funded" and "misguided cultural critics who mistake our mission and demand of us something we are not." PBS is "obligated to serve the public in a number of decidedly unsexy ways," he writes, and while it isn't as fast-paced as commercial TV, pubTV persists in "doing things well and doing things that last." In response to suggestions that PBS should have to compete in the marketplace like other media outlets, Burns writes, "Many blessing have flowed to America from that marketplace, but I am certain that none of the films I have made in the last nearly 30 years could have been produced anywhere but at PBS."