OpinionJournal - Leisure & Arts: TV's Evangelist for Capitalism

re: John H. Fund writes, "Despite his renown as a Nobel Prize-winning economist and best-selling author, most people came to know the late Milton Friedman through television. His 10-part 1980 series, "Free to Choose," was so popular that it aired three times on public television and is even now adding fans via a free Internet video-stream (www.ideachannel.tv)./ So it's fitting that the original team of producers for "Free to Choose" returned to PBS Monday (declared "Milton Friedman Day" in California by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco) with a 90-minute intellectual biography called "The Power of Choice: The Life and Times of Milton Friedman." (Many public television stations are airing the program at other times this week; check local listings.)...[snip]...As much as the show is a celebration of Friedman's life and work, it also showcases the remarkable entrepreneur who made it and "Free to Choose" possible. Bob Chitester produced the original series while serving as the only public-TV station manager in the country who didn't believe in government subsidies. A tireless promoter, he raised the equivalent of $8 million today for the series--entirely from private sources, an achievement that delighted Friedman..."...