PBS

The Public Broadcasting Service grew out of a conviction that television could do more than sell soap. The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, a product of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, created a framework for noncommercial media, and in 1969 PBS was formed to distribute programming to the nation's public television stations. It offered an alternative to the commercial networks — education and culture rather than ratings and advertising.

PBS became a fixture of American childhood and cultural life. Sesame Street proved that television could teach young children their letters and numbers, and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood taught them about their feelings, while for adults the network offered the documentaries of Ken Burns, the science of Nova, the drama of Masterpiece, and the sober journalism of its nightly news hour. Early support from the Ford Foundation helped make such programming possible.

Unlike the commercial networks, PBS depended on a patchwork of government funds, foundation grants, and viewer donations — the pledge drives and the phrase viewers like you that became part of its identity. That reliance on federal money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting made it a recurring target in budget fights, its funding debated by every administration that questioned the government's role in the media.

For more than half a century PBS has embodied the idea of public media in the United States — television meant to educate, enlighten, and serve the public rather than the market. Its history reflects an enduring American experiment in whether a commercial culture can sustain a space for noncommercial television devoted to children, culture, and news.