Congress Votes: Stop Funding PBS-VOTERS WRITE!

i wrote to my state senetor PBS is neededmore then every i need it for my children and they gave seasame st and sqaure one and ec and all those shows a chance to make learning fun


my letter was a lot more articulite and thought out but you get the jist i also wrote to NJ GOV Cody and hopefuul doug Forrester ( Who i'm campaigning for ) NJN state run PBS here in nj is a state issue of majority funding also Forrester saed it is importaint

Mr. Peter Nehra
** ***** ****
******** ** *****

Dear Peter:

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about management of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Public Broadcasting Service
(PBS). I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

The CPB is a private, not-for-profit corporation established by Congress in
1967, and it is the largest single funding source for public television and
radio programming. The President appoints each member of the Board of
Directors; those members in turn select the chair. The Board elected Kenneth
Tomlinson as its chair in September of 2003.

Since then, Mr. Tomlinson has made it clear that he believes PBS and
National Public Radio (NPR) have liberal bias in their programming. Last year,
he hired an outside consultant to keep track of the political leanings of guests
on “Now” with Bill Moyers, and is reportedly considering taking similar action
against NPR’s coverage of the Middle East. Recently, the ranking Democrats on
the House Appropriations and Commerce Committees sent a letter to CPB’s
Inspector General charging Mr. Tomlinson with breaking the law in these efforts.
I am pleased to report that the Inspector General’s office has launched an
investigation into the matter.

I listen to National Public Radio (NPR) and watch television programs on
PBS nearly every day. They provide a straightforward and objective presentation
of history and current events, and important educational programming. I firmly
believe in protecting the independence of public broadcasting, and I will oppose
all efforts by Mr. Tomlinson to compromise it.

Thank you again for contacting me, and please feel free to do so again
about issues of interest or concern to you.

I totaly agree.

I doubt that this will help that much, but to those who cannot write to their congress, here's a petition I made.

http://www.petitiononline.com/pbsfund/petition.html

Statement:

To: U.S. Congress

So, you’re at home at night, having nothing to do, and decide to turn the TV on. As you change the channel, there are hotline and info commercials on. At the end you start to give up hope, and there it is! Monty Python’s Flying Circus, something that’s bound to entertain you, and give you laughs at the same time. What channel does it happen to be on? Your local PBS.

So you sit there and smile, watching all these actors act in bizarre ways, wondering to yourself, how can I help this public station? You see all these pledge drives but can’t seem to help in producing some money to donate,. This is where the government comes in.

As many do, I do believe that PBS will be around for an other generation to come. It would be very odd if the station was just to vanish one day. There are many people who haven’t seen a day in there life where nothing was being shown on the Public Broadcasting Station.

(APTS) These funding cuts are so drastic that they will severely impact every public television and radio station’s ability to provide educational, cultural and informational programming in local communities and throughout the nation.

Honestly, do you really want your kids to be watching the other “supposedly” kid channels out there today? Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network are one of the many that receive complaints about the shows that they insist on showing our kids.

(APTS) The elimination of funding for Ready To Learn is punitive. Ready To Learn integrates commercial-free children’s educational television and online resources with community outreach to help parents and educators prepare young children for success in school. Award-winning Ready To Learn television programs include Arthur, DragonTales, Clifford, Between the Lions, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Maya & Miguel, and Postcards from Buster.

You must remember, if you quit funding, there will be more companies who will start doing the same. The viewers support is only forty-nine percent of PBS’s funding and we don’t need that to decrease.

(APTS) The recommended 25% cut in funding for CPB would result in my local station receiving less federal and state financial assistance for operations. This almost certainly would cause my local station to cancel educational services and slash local programming production.

So basically, the government funding for all the PBC stations in the United States is important. Unlike many other stations, it keeps its promise to entertain its viewers. Whether it be children’s programming, cooking, news, or British comedies, PBS is there to help brighten our day.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

I'm working on a letter, Kev! That's HORRIBLE! that they voted to not support PBS...my parents purposely never got cable or anything like that, because they always knew they could pick up PBS with our antenna. Sure, some of the shows have changed (Oh! how I miss Shining Time Station!) but the shows on are still educational, just in a different format. I am enraged by this decision, and will be finishing my letter (perhaps after I cool down a little though )

This.

is.

a.

TRAVESTY.

I wish I could do something, I mean, I grew up watching PBS, and I still watch it now! But I live in Canada, so I can't mail my "Local senator" about this or anything... Is there something I can do?

Hmm.....well......you could just pick a senator...or if you've ever seen PBS in the US, e-mail that senator.

Oh, good idea. Thank you. I could mail the senator of the area of the PBS station that I get up here.

did you all hear that? I came up with a good idea *beams*

You should be proud! **claps**
Although, I doubt they'd read it, as I don't matter to them..

I'll just have to go show them some kung fu moves if they don't! *makes creepy noises*

I am outraged, as you can plainly see. I'll get into depth about what I think is the real reason they want to stop funding.

As we all remember, the only reason Bush won the election is because the christian right was trying to spread fear about Homosexual marriage ("one may even marry you") and abortion ("they are going to take your babies' lives'") so they'd have a puppet in washington. Bush used this agenda to cover up the war and the terrible economy his tax cuts caused.

But the PBS thing? Congress has been threatening to pull funding from PBS for YEARS... even since the Clinton adminsistration. They are using the "Postcards from Buster" episode as an excuse to get people to think this is the right thing to do.

Now.... I have seen this episode. It features homosexual partners raising adopted (and well adjusted, might I add) kids. Now, the episode doesn't even acknowledge the fact they are gay, nor do they even discuss what "gay" is. Even still, the head of PBS (who is rightwing, mind you) denounced the episode, and let stations run it on their own disgression, a lot of them not airing it.

The obvious factor is the Bush Tax cuts for the wealthy (and paltry sums to the non-wealthy), especially during times of war was just a dumb thing to do. No other way to describe it. Less money means less money for education, job education, health, and public broadcasting. Now, to sweeten this up to the general public, they're going to out and out lie, blaiming Buster for the entire thing. They will turn around and say that withholding tolerance ffor homosexuals is a good thing. Sort of how the Patriot act isn't called the "Government searching through everyone's private information act" or "No Child left behind" isn't "throw a couple bucks at a few public schools to make us look good."

If you think this is anti-Rightwing biased..... the Democrats aren't doing anything to fight it. They have become the great doormat party. They let the christian right walk all over us, trouncing our free speach and tolerance with fake bible quotes (all while ignoring the poor and sick, which as I got out of the bible, helping them in the name of God is the only thing they WON'T do)

PBS will have to become something funded totally by private parties or (shock) air commercials if they want to stay alive.

Normally, Drtooth, I get peeved over gross generalisations of christianity, but as I am not american, and I am also far from anything you've described these christians to be, I'll overlook it and choose not to take offense. It is very sad though, that religion must be so inappropritately used in politics. And I do mean used.

I should have been more specific. I mean the far FAAAAAR right Christians, comprised of PTL type preachers. The ones who specifically use their opinions for political gains, and work their motivations into their religious practices. Sorry If I caused any distress. But I am a Christian as well, heck, my father is an ordained minister (as of Sunday... he's been trying for years).

I should have been more specific, and said the politically motivated pseudo christians. The ones that exhibit very Un-Christian like behavior. But, I guess in a fit of pent up rage of how the government is working nowadays (The overly effective Republican votes, and the wimpy Doormat Democratic votes) I left out important details.


I meant to say.... The government is using the case of Tolerence as a political blinder for the fact that Congress has threatened to slash PBS funding for years. Of course being several Billion in the hole, they needed a way to cut funding for something. But again, this is the same legislature that once paid several thousand for a toilet seat.

So once again, I appologize if I had, in a bout of anger over the issue, have accidentally offended you dudes. S'all right?

Yes, everything is fine. : ) Thank you for clarifying, it's much appreciated. Another forum I spend time on has alot of religious and political discussions (alot of which are unfounded, biased, or uneducated), so I've gotten used to defending my position, even when it's not always necessary. From what you've said, I now understand your point of view, since you do know what you're talking about, and meant no offence. And I have absolutely no hard feelings.
Congrats on your dad just becoming a minister!

So, back to it, eh? I must admit I'm horribly undereducated about this whole situation, and I'm not entirely aware of the whole situation.
Is it because of old debt, then, that they are cutting the funding, and people who are just against the Bush admin are pinning it on him? If that is true, it still doesn't make it right that they are using the whole issue of "tolerance", did you say, to justify why they are making the cuts. Do I have this right?
**Is a little confused**

you are illinformed and a bigot

the real reason this is a issue today is that the left leaning prograoms of NPR and PBS are Wrong PBS has rules in there bylaws that state the shall not endoirse or support any side and should telecast bothsides of the issue.
a demorcatic seneter form my state is on our side he believes this to be true that it is left leaning which is fine with me ( A Card carriny young Republican buyt the fact that you rant and rave about stuuf you know nothing about sickens me you are sore that Bush beat a lifeless Kerry has nothing to do with this

thank you and good day sir