“(W)ith the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark – that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.” – Hunter S. Thompson

I think one of the things that makes America wonderful is our tradition of freedom of speech and open expression of ideas.

Of course, with that freedom come views that are uncomfortable or sometimes outright wrong. Ideas that could lead to people being physically harmed should fall beyond protections of freedom of expression.

I try to offer the benefit of the doubt to people who express their beliefs whenever possible because in recent years we have witnessed what happens when we leave the circle of protection afforded by freedom of expression – cancel culture.

My memory is a little foggy, but I seem to remember for a while there were people talking about some wild ideas like renaming high schools named after Abraham Lincoln because he was racist and removing Chase the police dog from the popular “Paw Patrol” cartoon simply because he was associated with the police.

Then, instead of emerging from that time wiser and more circumspect, we seemingly flipped on a dime in the other direction.

A few weeks ago, instructors at Auburn University were informed they would have to confirm with the university that their course syllabi and content complied with the legal requirements of 2024’s Alabama Senate Bill 129.

The law is supposed to prevent any “divisive concept” from being promoted by an instructor, though divisive concepts supposedly can still be presented and discussed.

Personally, Auburn’s confirmation requirement seems awfully similar to many colleges compelling instructors to submit commitment-to-diversity statements in the previous version of cancel culture.

Another example is President Donald Trump and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr going after several late-night television hosts who have been critical of Trump, even threatening some type of FCC action against ABC for comments made by Jimmy Kimmel.

The tide of cancel culture did not recede. It only shifted toward another part of the shoreline.

But a couple of weeks ago, I saw a sign that maybe the cancel culture flood level had peaked. The Alabama Educational Television Commission, which oversees Alabama Public Television, recently explored the possibility of ending PBS programming on APT and becoming completely independent.

You may remember Congress and Trump recently voted to stop funding the nonprofit Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was a significant funding source for PBS. Republicans have long accused PBS and its radio equivalent, NPR, of holding a liberal bias out of line with Republican beliefs.

AP correspondent Kim Chandler reported two members of the Alabama commission “had floated the idea of severing ties with PBS, citing federal budget cuts to public broadcasting and accusations by President Donald Trump and other conservatives of bias in news programs.”

Now, Republicans may have had a point. My personal opinion is PBS reporting is generally even-handed with some occasional shading toward liberal views. NPR, however, did seem to make a harder turn to the left in recent years. You might disagree as I am not using any real data for those judgments.

Nevertheless, making the call not to renew APT’s contract with PBS would have been one of the more high-profile examples of cutting off your nose to spite your face, a political tradition long observed in Alabama.

Even Gov. Kay Ivey stepped in and wrote a letter to commission members before the meeting urging them to study the costs and consequences before making such a move.

Thankfully, the commission listened to Ivey and the members of the public who filled the meeting room to voice their support for keeping PBS. The commission voted 5-1 to pay the fee to continue partnering with PBS into 2026.

In an interview on APT’s “Capitol Journal” after the commission’s meeting, APT executive director Wayne Reid said leaving PBS would stick APT with substantial increased costs because APT would now unilaterally be creating or purchasing all its shows in addition to negotiating on its own for licensing fees and music rights among other services.

This discussion may not be finished as the commission also approved conducting a more substantial study of both the financial feasibility and the amount of public support for disaffiliation from PBS.

Growing up watching children’s programming on APT and parenting a child who does the same certainly colors my viewpoint on wanting to keep PBS, but the commission at least deciding against leaping without looking solely because of a perception of bias gives me hope the mania of cancel culture is finally losing its grip.