Jim Russell's Counterpunch, "Speaking Up for Public Broadcasting" (May 4), made a worthy complaint about the fickle "have our cake and eat it too" attitude of most Americans. I disagree, however, with his attempt to justify using taxation to support public broadcasting.
Tax financing is a tacit public statement that there isn't enough genuine public support for the institution and that, without coercion, it would not be supported, and thus that either it is unworthy or the people are clods. Neither is true.
