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#pbs

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#PBS #teaching #teenagers #DigitalLiteracy #AI

'Young people are leading users of [AI], but many don’t know the limitations or how to use them ethically and responsibly.

That’s why the Poynter Institute’s media literacy initiative MediaWise, in partnership with PBS News Student Reporting Labs, created AI Unlocked, a five-part video series with accompanying lesson plans that breaks down the world of artificial intelligence in ways that teens can comprehend.'

poynter.org/fact-checking/medi

Poynter · Poynter’s MediaWise and PBS launch AI literacy video series for teens - PoynterThe new series called AI Unlocked includes five lessons to help students better understand the world of generative artificial intelligence.

#MAGA - Congressional Republicans target PBS, NPR funding in contentious hearing

> A House #Republican pushing the Trump administration's government efficiency efforts has called for dismantling and defunding the nation's public broadcast system following a contentious public hearing on Wednesday
abcnews.go.com/Business/wireSt #PBS #NPR #PublicBroadcasting

ABC News · Congressional Republicans target PBS, NPR funding in contentious hearingBy DAVID BAUDER AP media writer

in an article about maga wanting to defund PBS because the truth hurts them I found an interesting statistic "According to a 2024 poll by YouGov, PBS was Americans’ third-most trusted news source after The Weather Channel and the BBC."
It's very telling that the most trusted news source in the states is the British Broadcasting Company, even people from here don't trust US news organizations to be honest.
#FundPBS #PBS #BBC #TheWeatherChannel #Journalism #NewsSources #MediaBias

"“The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram” traces how various loosely-moderated platforms, from 4chan to 8chan to eventually Telegram, have become havens for extremist ideas and for radicalization. The investigation shows how a number of attackers around the world — from Slovakia to New Zealand to the United States — used these various platforms and were encouraged by them.

“Drawing on a trove of archived posts, our reporting shows how Telegram and other lightly regulated platforms became a gathering place for ‘militant accelerationists’ — neo-Nazis who want to use terror and violence to bring down governments and create new, white ethnostates,” says A.C. Thompson, who has been reporting on the evolution of violent extremism in the U.S. for years.

The film also probes how authorities in several countries would eventually arrest around a dozen people allegedly tied to the Terrorgram Collective, a transnational virtual network of extremists accused of inciting acts of white supremacist terrorism. The U.S. government would charge two Americans with a slew of felonies, including soliciting the murder of government officials on Telegram. Telegram says it has always screened postings for problematic content and that, “Calls for violence from any group are not tolerated on our platform.”"

The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram
youtu.be/l8nsgzwuc_o

youtu.be- YouTubeEnjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

We need media directly funded by the masses via an automatic payment using a decentralized fiat transfer protocol. Not the government. Not big donations from rich people, corporations, or even NGOs. We need this kind of support to be a new norm, combined with a civic commitment to care more about varied quality perspectives and sources rather than being entertained by having our biases stroked.

cc @Interledger

An example of why fascists want to defund PBS & NPR: This morning on Democracy Now, I learned that Musk left South Africa when he turned 18, likely to avoid being drafted. At that time the SA Army had combat operations. #PBS

Continued thread

As part of its ongoing war against both public services and media that reports on the Trump regime critically, the heads of NPR and PBS were dragged before a congressional subcommittee run by noted fascist freak Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), whose language made it clear the Trump regime is borrowing a playbook from one of the darkest periods of US history:

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m

NPR and PBS testify in heated hearing of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Doge panel

"NPR and PBS have increasingly become radical leftwing echo chambers,” said the Georgia Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene during her opening remarks, accusing NPR of having a “communist agenda”.

The hearing, called “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable”, was chaired by Greene who is head of a “delivering on government efficiency” group within the House oversight committee.

The Doge subcommittee hearing comes as the Trump administration, including the senior presidential adviser Elon Musk, wage a months-long campaign against public broadcasters and critical media more broadly. The FCC, led by a recent Trump appointee, opened an investigation into NPR and PBS in January. A day before the hearing, President Donald Trump said he would “love to” end public funding for the public broadcasters."

I know there's a tendency among "respectable" people to ignore everything Greene says and does because she's a raving nazi crank, and often a circus-level distraction from "serious" politics; but in this case I think doing so would be a grave mistake. Why? Because she just turned a govt efficiency panel into a House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) session right out of the darkest days of McCarthyism, before using the regime's reactionary grievances with NPR and PBS to further its war on media, public broadcasting, and programs funded for the education and edification of the American public.

If you think I'm going too far with that comparison, consider the title of the hearing (Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable) and keep in mind that the purpose of calling it is ostensibly "efficiency." This is a funding recommendation panel. Greene doesn't have the authority to "hold the heads of NPR and PBS accountable" but before she even spoke a word, she'd already cast the networks' programing as anti-American and a danger to the nation.

If that doesn't convince you, consider the lines of questioning Greene pursued and the content of her arguments. She literally accused NPR of having a "communist agenda," cast critical reporting of the Trump regime as anti-American, and grilled PBS's Paula Kerger about LGBTQ+ content like it was some kinda crime.

"The attacks on PBS, meanwhile, heavily focused on opposition to LGBTQ+ content in its programming. “They are now part of transing children, brainwashing children about gender,” Greene said of PBS on Tuesday during an interview on the rightwing channel Newsmax.

Greene repeatedly attacked PBS during the hearing over claims that it featured a drag performer on one of its shows, holding up a poster of the performer who she described as “child predator” and “monster.”

Folks, this is an official representative of the govt seriously arguing that showing a fully-clothed drag performer singing a children's song is an anti-American plot to "trans" and "brainwash" US children. No really; and she accused the singer of being a child predator without evidence to boot. She also accused both networks of being a "radical leftwing echo chamber" which would be an absurd comment on its face given the milquetoast, barely left of center content found on both networks, if not for the inclusion of the sinister-sounding word "radical" and the larger context of the hearing.

Please keep in mind that after seizing control of the typically independent FCC (see article at the top of this thread), Trump minion and Project 2025 author Brendan Carr immediately opened up clearly ideological investigations into NPR and PBS, and Downmarket Mussolini himself has been threatening to revoke the licenses of ostensibly "liberal" media that criticizes him or reports on his unlawful activities, including PBS and NPR. In that context, all of this, including this hearing, is designed to manufacture consent for ideological policing every bit as reactionary and malicious as the HUAC and McCarthyism.

In terms of spending, the government doesn't provide very much of NPR and PBS's funding; which only goes to demonstrate the purpose of this hearing was ideological policing, not govt efficiency. Because these people use the whole cow however, Greene still seized the moment to advocate for dismantling the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, even though it won't shut down NPR or PBS, because doing so will shut down local media and these fascists want you ignorant and reliant on their propaganda outlets for the news.

The Guardian · NPR and PBS testify in heated hearing of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Doge panelBy Nick Robins-Early

But Moron Marjorie is ok with Russia, the bastion of Soviet communism, and its totalitarian leader. She wants to silence the citizen voice culture found in pubic broadcasting funded by citizens.

"Marjorie Taylor Greene attacks NPR and PBS as ‘communist,’ calls for funding to ‘end’"

cnn.com/2025/03/26/media/npr-p

“After listening to what we’ve heard, today, we will be calling for the complete and total defund and dismantling of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” Taylor Greene said.

CNN · Marjorie Taylor Greene wants NPR and PBS to defend their existenceBy Brian Stelter

I haven’t worked for #PBS or #NPR, but I’ve collaborated with both to share #science stories.

The talented people there are always thoughtful, curious & kind. They’ve gifted us Mister Rogers, Carl Sagan, Julia Child, LeVar Burton & Elmo. 🌈

It’s appalling to see members of Congress attack them for political points.

A U.S. House subcommittee has called the chief executives of the nation's two largest public broadcasters to Capitol Hill to testify on Wednesday, with an eye to wiping out the federal funding their institutions receive.

houstonpublicmedia.org/article

Houston Public Media · Republican lawmakers seek to put PBS and NPR in the hot seatBy DAVID FOLKENFLIK

For many years I’ve been helping Josephine Library Community District, a small library district in Southern Oregon.

Their story is quite exceptional. And they’re in a very red area, so they’re always fighting the good fight.

OPB (Oregon’s PBS) ran a wonderful segment on them. It’s about their team, the libraries, and their battle.

I’m proud of them. And my website is featured in the intro. 🥰

pbs.org/video/regional-librari

www.pbs.orgUs As We Are | Regional Libraries | Season 5 | Episode 2A look behind the scenes at regional libraries in Southern Oregon.