Revered filmmaker Ken Burns added his voice to the throngs of people defending public broadcasting from funding cuts in Congress.

Burns has been creating documentary films for 30 years, and some of his most notable productions include The Civil War (1990), Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001), The War (2007), and The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009). All of these films were produced with help from PBS.

Burns wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post on Sunday, saying:

Like millions of my countrymen, I am profoundly concerned that the debate over government spending, while necessary, has come to threaten the cultural, educational, informational and civilizing influences that help equip us for enlightened citizenship. Suddenly, these are dismissed as "unaffordable luxuries" when in fact we have never needed them more.

Earlier this month, the House of Representatives approved a budget that strips all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity responsible for piping support to PBS. Burns warns that the cuts could have devastating impacts on public affairs programming that delves into science, nature, arts, culture and performance.

Without PBS, his own films may have never reached an audience. He says:

Not one of my documentaries, produced solely for PBS over the past 30 years, could have been made anywhere but on public broadcasting. Each time a film of mine happens to reach a large audience, I am 'invited' to join the marketplace. Each time I patiently explain to my new suitor what I have planned for my next project - an 11-and-a-half-hour history of the Civil War, perhaps, or a 17-hour investigation of the history of jazz, or a 12-hour history of the national parks - I am laughed out of their offices, sent, happily, back to PBS.

The fight for public broadcasting now moves to the Senate. Join Burns in defending public media by telling Congress you want more films by courageous and creative filmmakers, not less.