Why is the Dept. of Education sponsoring the O'Reilly Factor?

[Snellius]

I'm hard of hearing so I often watch TV with closed captioning turned on. Lately, I noticed at the end of Bill O'Reilly's nightly harangue that the captions ended with "CAPTIONS SPONSORED BY THE DEPT. OF EDUCATION". Now, what possible educational benefit could there be in using taxpayer money to subsidize a partisan right-wing blowhard like Bill O'Really? I subsequently noticed that much of the closed captioning on FOX was sponsored by the Dept. of Education, while other cable news outlets like CNN provide their own. And until now, Murdoch had always been too cheap to provide close captioning of any sort. It's also interesting that FOX seems to have more than it's share of paid "public service announcements" from HHS or SS warning of marijuana use or touting the government's new Medicare "reform". So who knows? We report. You decide.

[ClintonTyree]

1. That should be.............

the Department of RE-EDUCATION I believe. Seriously, anyone who watches O'Liely needs to be educated. If they take the advice, they'd no longer watch the pompous moron.

[maggrwaggr]

2. wow, nice catch. That is very fucked up and can it be legal?

nt

[KharmaTrain]

3. Department Of Accuracy...

The person who types the caption (usually working for a third party, not Faux), is paid with money from a U.S. Dept. of Education grant. It's been around for a long time and also pays for captioning on PBS and many other channels.

Many times I get a kick out of watching the captioning on Faux and compare it to what they're actually saying...the two don't always jive.

Cheers

[JohnLocke]

4. Ehem.

The Dept. of Education sponsors almost all captioning on TV. I see this message at the end of many shows.

[Florida_Geek]

5. This is more FU than that

http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/18489.htm

February 21, 2004 -- THE U.S. Education Department has cut the money for captioning nearly 200 TV programs, setting off a firestorm among advocates of the deaf.
Among the shows cut off from government funds: MTV's "Cribs," Disney Channel's "Lizzie McGuire," reruns of "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie," and Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle."

The government says it is following a 1997 mandate from Congress only to pay for captioning of "educational, news and informational" programming.

But advocates for the deaf like Kelby Brick, associate executive director of the National Association of the Deaf say: "The department wants to ensure that over 28 million deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals are not exposed to any non-puritan programming."

..end of cut..

[AP]

6. It's like when the Army bought advertising time on the Fox superbowl

show because Fox was having a hard time selling all the slots.

It's just a transfer of tax money from us to rightwinger friends of the Bush evil empire.