LeVar Burton blasts PBS funding cuts, book banning

LeVar Burton used an appearance on ABC’s “The View” this week to slam federal cuts to public broadcasting and what he called a national “problem with the truth,” weaving pointed political commentary into a wide-ranging conversation about his decades in television.

Mr. Burton, best known for his roles in “Roots,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and the long-running educational series “Reading Rainbow,” appeared on the daytime talk show Tuesday to promote the second season of his CW game show “Trivial Pursuit” and an upcoming memoir, “Take My Word for It,” due out Nov. 10.

The conversation turned to his 1977 miniseries “Roots,” which chronicled the life of enslaved African man Kunta Kinte and became one of the most-watched programs in television history, and whether it could find a similar audience today.

“If it aired today, I think ’Roots’ would have a very bumpy road to the airwaves,” Mr. Burton said. “There would be a lot of resistance. Just there is book banning going on and all kinds of nonsense in the public sphere … As important a story as it is, why do we have such a problem with the truth?”

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg pushed back on the suggestion, arguing that oral tradition would carry the story regardless of political headwinds.

“You know why it would? Because remember how it started,” Ms. Goldberg said. “It started orally. And you can take down all the signs you want to. You can tear up every bus … but you cannot take away the stories that we tell.”

Mr. Burton relented. “On second thought, you’re right,” he said. “That’s why I’m a storyteller, to preserve that part of who we are, not just for ourselves, but for the ensuing generations.”

The sharpest exchange came when co-host Joy Behar asked Mr. Burton about the Trump administration’s cuts to PBS funding. Congress voted last year to rescind federal appropriations for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity that channeled government money to PBS and NPR, effectively forcing the CPB to wind down. The administration also issued an executive order directing all federal agencies to terminate funding to the two broadcasters — a directive a federal judge ruled unconstitutional in March, though its practical effect remains limited given the congressional action already in place.

“Joy, do you really want to hear me say that?” Mr. Burton said before sighing and continuing. “Just like we have a problem with the truth in this nation, we are also addicted to spending money on war and weapons of war, and we have sacrificed generations of our kids and their education.”

Mr. Burton’s frustration with the PBS cuts carries personal weight. “Reading Rainbow,” which he hosted for more than two decades beginning in 1983, aired on PBS and became a staple of elementary school classrooms across the country.

He is currently in the second season of “Trivial Pursuit” on The CW, which premiered in January. The show, renewed last May for 30 episodes, features contestants competing for a $20,000 jackpot across six trivia categories on a giant version of the classic board game.