I am appalled.
June 30 saw the end of New Jersey Network, the public broadcasting entity run in part by the state of New Jersey. Some 40 years ago, someone smart decided that the Garden State, with its 8-million residents, might benefit from having television and radio stations that were not primarily concerned with our evil overlords, New York and Philadelphia. And so NJN was born, and there was a nightly newscast about--what do you know--New Jersey, among many other fine programs the ensuing four decades have brought.
On election nights, I would check in with Kent Manahan and her colleagues at NJN News for results and analysis. My pal the late Dusty McNichol was a frequent guest on some public affairs programming. The first time I saw The Road to Morocco it was on NJN. I actually own a DVD copy (which I made myself, because as far as I know a commercial one is not available) of an NJN special Jean Shepherd did for the network, "Jean Shepherd on Route One." Genius.
Enter Our Beloved Governor Chris Christie.
Christie, with whom I agree on... let me check... nothing, decided that the budget crisis in our state was so bad that we needed to stop funding NJN. Now, I know that the budget crisis in New Jersey (and a lot of the other 49, truth be told) is pretty severe, but the total $4-million per year spent on NJN might have easily been offset--and then some, by a large margin--by increasing taxes on our millionaires, of whom we have quite a few. Not so, says Our Beloved Governor. Millionaires are "job creators." (If that's true, they've been doing a lousy job and don't deserve tax breaks.) We can't tax them. Better we should do without a presence on the public airwaves.
Of course, those who are more politically cynical than I might believe that Mr. Christie, like many in his party, believes that public broadcasting has a "liberal bias" which makes its funding unfair to people like, say, him. One tends to think that if Fox News had offered to provide a New Jersey newscast, Our Beloved Governor would have found the extra cash under the sofa cushions at Drumthwacket.
What I know is that since NJN's television signal has been effectively given to WNET (which is technically listed in Elizabeth, NJ, but is also known as Channel 13, New York's PBS station) and its radio signals to WHYY, both of which promised to include some New Jersey broadcasting (nice of 'em), all decisions on the programming we Jerseyans will get are to be made by executives in... wait for it... New York and Philadelphia.
Thanks, Chris. Nice work. As usual, you got what you wanted (and helped out a few of your wealthy pals) without actually considering what the people of your state want. Bravo.
Adding insult to injury was the fact that before NJN was officially killed off, a plea went out for donations to the station to keep things going, and I contributed. I hate to think one of Christie's pals dined out (albeit cheaply) on my dime.
Meanwhile, I'll be missing NJN, particularly its Nightly News. Somehow, reruns of Masterpiece Theater on yet another PBS station won't really fill the void.
Rest in peace, New Jersey Network. I--and a lot of other people--will miss you.
