What PBS was intended to be—America’s advertising-free oasis of exceptional programs—HBO has more or less become. The only rub is it costs 40 or 50 cents a day to watch, and thus isn’t truly “public.” So here are a couple of modest proposals. At a negligible cost to itself, HBO could donate its service to the poorest cable households—if you have a Medicaid card, say, you qualify. And for another $40 million or so a year—less than 4 percent of its annual earnings—the company could underwrite and air the two indisputable arguments for PBS’s continued existence, The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer and Frontline. It would still be sad to watch PBS finally wither away, but at least it wouldn’t be a disaster. We’d have our HBO.

Related:

• Archive: “The Imperial City”
• Articles by Kurt Andersen
• Table of Contents: Aug 8, 2005 issue of New York | Subscribe!