Is it stealing?

Last night I was watching The Simpsons' 10pm airing when it finished. As is my usual, I grabbed the remote and changed the channels by using the down arrow to get to the Tonight Show, cause every once in a while I like to watch that Antiques Roadshow that comes on PBS broadcasting. Well, when I came across the PBS station and found it was the story of the Mamas and the Papas, so I stayed on and watched just in time to have the show go into an intermission & telethon workers pop on screen asking for your donations for such fine quality shows.

In his plea for cash, he reminded us over and over again about how PBS and public broadcasting are solely dependent on the private sector for support & blah blah blah blah blah, and then said that the history of PBS has always depended on support from the viewers of the past. Then I started to think about what he said until I hit the channel down button and hit the Tonight Show. While listening to what Jay Leno was joking about, I started thinking about the years my parents and myself had essentially been STEALING public broadcasting programs as we sat on weekends watching This Old House and Hometime, Motorweek, Yan Can Cook and that weird art guy with the afro. We stole those programs from people who paid for it!

Then I started thinking about it. The same people who paid for those programs also paid for those Masterpiece Theatre shows that no one watches, Dr. Who[cares], and ever-so-stimulating musings of local leaders. I figure, if they litter the PBS frequency with that crap, at least they went low-brow with the home improvement and car stuff. Suckers...

So, I go back to my original question, if you watch Antiques Roadshow (I am hooked), Motorweek or Nova (it's still on!) do you send your contributions in, or are you a dirty thief?

PS, Don't get me started on how Sesame Street needs to start funding PBS, they pull in millions of dollars a year in merchandising, you can't really believe that you have to pay to keep them on that station...