Don't Use Tax Dollars To Buy Good Taste on TV

Don't Use Tax Dollars To Buy Good Taste on TV

In the opinion-page article "Commercial TV Can't Do PBS's Job," May 22, the author notes that "[p]ublic broadcasting is as urgently needed now as 30 years ago."

I agree with the author that commercial TV is often tasteless, degrading, and insulting; I disagree that "federal support ... should be increased." A careful study of the United States Constitution fails to reveal any support for governmental intrusion into the field of what citizens may or must hear. The point is not how much we spend in comparison with other countries, but rather that the US government has no business spending any of the people's money on anything not supported in the Constitution.

The government may not take my tax money to support the author's religion, no matter how beneficial; it likewise may not take my tax money to support the author's political or cultural agenda, no matter how desirable.

Robert B. Henn Kalamazoo, Mich.