Recently I wrote about a guest column from two former Arkansas first ladies who bemoaned that Arkansas public television moved one show's time slot and put another broadcast online. Therein, I repeated my conclusion that for far too long, state public television stations across the nation were merely satellites of a D.C.-area leftist conglomerate.

I detailed the circular-funding scheme in which the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a "private corporation funded by the American people" (huh?), distributed money to local public television stations and subsidized content creation by the D.C.-area-based Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), while PBS charged each state public television station dues for those programs, which were paid with money received from the CPB.

Guest editorialist Leon Kaplan took issue with this specific description and then explained that "[t]he passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 included funding (at the time about $5 million) ... the CPB's complex funding process [continued until] Congress ... defund[ed] the CPB, after nearly six decades." Isn't that precisely what I said?

I remained befuddled when Kaplan further elucidated: "CPB was an American nonprofit corporation created by Congress under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting in the United States and whose mission was to ensure universal access to non-commercial, high-quality educational, cultural, and other content and telecommunications services (a mission in stark contrast to Mr. Steinbuch's claim of delight if Arkansas TV ran 10 hours ... [of] 'The Odd Couple' and 'Barney Miller')."

Is Kaplan complaining that I misunderstand public television's "mission" when I offered my preference for "The Odd Couple" and "Barney Miller" blocks? If that's his gripe, then I couldn't be more delighted, because I doubted that anyone would bite on that lure. Luckily, Kaplan zealously chomped down on that barbed hook.

As such, Kaplan needs to explain how "The Odd Couple" and "Barney Miller" fail his test of erudition, but the following British comedies routinely broadcast on local PBS stations........

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