We are probably going to be living with jokes about the McDonald's contribution to the Public Broadcasting Service for a long time. I have no idea whether it will be the K.R.O.C. Network or whether people will order an NPR burger with fries and a coke.
The automatic creation of a joke classification comes from the declasse' marriage of Kroc and PBS. Like the Grand Ole Opry joining with the NY City Ballet. PBS is the snootiest snoot around and the Big Mac is the most declasse object on the planet.
For those who don't know, back in the Reagan 80's the centralized PBS changed course and gave all its money to the local stations so they could be autonomous and buy programming from each other. The central PBS, both radio and TV are very minor parts of the operation. It was the center that got the giant endowment.
I know that advertising influences news columns in newspapers, TV and magazines. It sure is going to influence PBS. I look forward to the day when NPR is no longer lefty.
By the way. Why is it so hard for editors and managers to know when their medium is left or right biased? All lefties know what is right biased when they read or see it, so do righties know what is left biased. How come the editors and managers get left out of the loop?
Will Krugman become a word like Bork? The poor guy has written a book and fifty columns trashing the current economy and we end up getting the fastest GDP and productivity growth in American history (yes, the fastest, because previous GDP growth had inflation problems that deflate the final number for earlier periods).
Krugman is like the psuedo-brave boy standing on the tracks while his friends scream at him to get off the tracks. Krugman expected to jump off the tracks when the 45 mph freight comes by. What he got is the 180 mph Shinkansen.