At a time of historical distrust in the nation’s capital, it should come as a bit of comic relief to a faithless public that we can’t even believe in Fourth of July fireworks anymore.
PBS—partly funded with taxpayer dollars—was called out Monday night for cutting its live coverage of the spectacle with previous years’ footage, a decision the broadcaster attributed to poor weather. While this year’s show did go on, Washington was hit with cloudy skies and rain for the holiday, prompting PBS to make what it termed was a “patriotic” and proactive decision.
“We showed a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years. It was the patriotic thing to do,” the Twitter feed for the event messaged at around 9:30 p.m. Monday.
The edited video was obvious to viewers. One particular shot of the Washington Monument showed a clear, pristine evening, with which the government’s own National Weather Service didn’t agree. Between the hours of 8:52 p.m. and 9:52 p.m. Monday, the listed conditions were a mix of light drizzle, mist and fog.
“What @PBS is showing right now is a lie – you can’t see the fireworks, it’s all clouds and rain,” pollster Frank Luntz tweeted during that time.
People of Luntz’s profession have found substantial majorities of Americans give the country’s political institutions low marks, with just 19 percent saying they trust the government to do the right thing at least most of the time, according to a 2015 Pew survey. Another finding from that poll: two out of every three respondents said the national news media has a negative effect on the nation.
PBS: the intersection of government and media. While the fireworks popped, the people sighed.
