Walter Meyer told us of his refusal to contribute financially to WETA after
the station eliminated classical music in the mornings.

I congratulate Walter for his action.  When these stations want money, they
tell us how important we are and how our wants are their biggest priority.
It's pure garbage.  Because, when it's time to make programming decisions,
the customer is a non-entity.

This brings me to one of my pet peeves - public involvement in the arts.
You always know what a private business wants - money and profit.  What
do these public and subsidized entities want: money? control? influence?
reputation? high quality? exposure with celebrities?.  It could be just
about anything, and it changes quickly as well.  There is also the "mind"
and "behavior" control element that public bodies place high priority on
because the power structure wants to retain its position.

No, I'll take the private way every time when it comes to the arts.  Look
at the basic functions that Government performs, functions which are not
viable for private enterprise.  They are performed very poorly, and those
are the functions Government performs best.

My opinion is that Government needs to stay far away from as many activites
as possible, because it is inherently inefficient and arbitrary.  Since
there is no compelling need for public involvement in the arts, this is an
area for Government to vacate.

Don Satz
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