Why is it important to preserve public television programs?
“The impact of television on our culture is. . . indescribable. There’s a certain sense in which it is nearly as important as the invention of printing.” — Carl Sandburg Worldwide, more than 30 million hours of unique television programming are broadcast every year. Yet only a tiny fraction of this vast output is preserved for future reference — and only a fraction of that preserved footage is publicly accessible. Most television broadcasts are simply lost forever. For better or for worse, television has transformed our lives. Since its invention more than 50 years ago, television has joined books, magazines and newspapers as a major keeper of our cultural and historical record. Television has produced and reflected much of our shared cultural, social and political experience since the last half of the 20th century. The medium brings us sound and moving images, distracts us with made-up stories, shows us true events, takes us to real places we may never see in person, and introduces us
