“More than 800 people have paid as much as $200,000 apiece to reserve seats on commercial flights into space, some of which are expected to launch, at long last, within a year. Space-travel agents are being trained; space suits are being designed for sex appeal as much as for utility; the founder of the Budget hotel chain is developing pods for short- and long-term stays in Earth’s orbit and beyond. Over beers one night, a former high-ranking NASA official, now employed by Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin transportation conglomerate, put it plainly: 'We happen to be alive at the moment when humanity starts leaving the planet.'”

—The Era of Private Space Travel is Just Beginning | NY Magazine

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For us, this old voiceover brings back wholesome childhood memories: “Funding for this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.” But thanks to Republicans and people like David Koch, only 12% of PBS’s funding comes from the federal government. “Viewers like you” can barely pay their rent, let alone donate sizable amounts to PBS. So the public’s network is forced to “create content that educates, informs and inspires,” so long as it does not offend the plutocrats who keep it alive—even if that means censoring documentary filmmakers.

According to a deeply depressing report in this week’s New Yorker, David Koch withheld a “seven-figure” donation to New York’s cash-starved PBS affiliate, WNET, after a documentary critical of the Kochs aired in November. Jane Mayer, somewhat of an authority on the Kochs, reports that Koch’s influence essentially killed the airing of another film on PBS entitled Citizen Koch.