Pennsylvania PBS funding cut -- help!

[StreetScenes]

Here is a disturbing report--with an equally disturbing user comment--that the state of Pennsylvania has cut the 85% of the entire PBS budget. If you're in Pennsylvania, please write your representatives!

I'm not sure if this is the right place on the forum for this, but it does affect Sesame Street's actual appearance on television...

 

[Drtooth]

...of course it did.... sigh.

know what was great? When we had all this money and it went to education and everything. Apparently that stuff is "pork," and our tax dollars should go to better things like annoying, hateful campaign ads, or large scale vanity wars so certain politicians can make their daddy's proud. it doesn't matter what side of the aisle you are politically, but few could argue the last 8 years were a freaking Neo-Con Distopian train wreck.

So, I agree full heartedly with that poster. PBS is a joke without government funding. Only thing (and this is coming from Carol himself) keeping SS in production are the sales of Tickle Me whatevers. And since Elmo live was too expensive for most kids this Christmas, things aren't looking to good.

And the heck with the BBC shows. i see 4 Britcoms on Saturdays, only 2 good ones and a bunch of tasteless British CSI/Law and Order clones... as if we don't get enough American ones (and occasional Canadian syndicated ones) already. And yes, the embarrassing begging for money from people who don't give a crap about PBS's regular programming, but when dried up, ancient Do Wop artists crow out their hits that you can't hear anywhere else (certainly not Oldies radio, CD shops, online, and even in grocery stores) they open up their wallets for the lowest pledge price.

What REALLY honks me is all these pseudoparents that whine about how evil Junk Food commericals and imaginative cartoons are brainwashing their kids so they don't all become Doctors when they're older..... you wanna do something? PLEDGE TO PBS! Don't waste your money on letter writing campaigns to pull Frosted Flakes off the shelves. You wanna save kid's programming? Give all the money you can to PBS.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I feel bad saying this, because I do think PBS is worth saving, but at the moment people can't always afford to give their money to a TV station, even if they enjoy it. Just like giving more money to a flawed educational system won't fix anything. The changes need to happen at home first. Perhaps they will now that people have to rearrange their priorities a bit, heh.

 

[StreetScenes]

well it's not just PBS that's under fire. Philadelphia is closing 12 branches of its public library this year. And kindergarten is not supported financially, so most neighborhoods except the wealthiest don't even have it. education, especially education accessible and affordable to children of all demographics--the very purpose of Sesame Street--is under fire from all directions. and it's not just pennsylvania, either--the public school district my mother works in has to fire about 30 teachers because of the cuts in the state budget, exacerbated by the "compromise" on the stimulus package that cut out much of the funds that were to go to each individual state.

the problem is exactly this thinking that any one of these programs is superfluous and not a priority in a time of budget crunch. because this is exactly what happens--they'll ALL go. and cutting these things now will set us back decades, and will hurt us much much more than cutting almost any other part of the budget.

i second your call drtooth to give money to PBS. the reason i disliked the comment on the article is that the person thinks tickle me elmo sales will keep kids programming on the air. but this perception of sw's licensing profits is flawed in two ways--one, as you say, those sales barely generate enough money to keep things going, and two, production doesn't matter if there's no place to distribute it--pbs is the only appropriate place and it's a completely separate entity. if we learned one important lesson from street gang, it's that sesame street and pbs are dependent on each other and the existence of both is far less stable than we think. we've taken them both for granted for decades, which is one reason pbs is in the place it's in now. even people who count education as a priority don't realize it's their responsibility to keep it going in one of two ways--through taxes (write your congressman!) or privately (donate to PBS!).

 

[mikebennidict]

That's the best thing to do.

I don't mind my tax money going to PBS for stuff like SS but I think it's time for them to become more self supportive and not through the govornment especially now.

I try to give moeny each year to WTTW.

They could also cut back some of the dumb. entertainment shows.

 

[Drtooth]

well it's not just PBS that's under fire. Philadelphia is closing 12 branches of its public library this year. And kindergarten is not supported financially, so most neighborhoods except the wealthiest don't even have it. education, especially education accessible and affordable to children of all demographics--the very purpose of Sesame Street--is under fire from all directions. and it's not just pennsylvania, either--the public school district my mother works in has to fire about 30 teachers because of the cuts in the state budget, exacerbated by the "compromise" on the stimulus package that cut out much of the funds that were to go to each individual state.

I see this happen everywhere, and it's appalling. Remember when everyone said that the tax cuts stimulated the economy? They did at first, but then again, people turned a nice blind eye to what they were losing. Remember how Firefighters became heroes? Well, while people were admiring the hero worship, we didn't notice the drastic cuts made to budgets to accommodate ill conceived tax cuts that actually closed many Firehouses... and now many, many more are on the chopping block. We NEED our fire houses, libraries and schools a lot more than Exxon needs to pad their profits and not actually invest that money in anything.

the problem is exactly this thinking that any one of these programs is superfluous and not a priority in a time of budget crunch. because this is exactly what happens--they'll ALL go. and cutting these things now will set us back decades, and will hurt us much much more than cutting almost any other part of the budget.

i second your call drtooth to give money to PBS. the reason i disliked the comment on the article is that the person thinks tickle me elmo sales will keep kids programming on the air. but this perception of sw's licensing profits is flawed in two ways--one, as you say, those sales barely generate enough money to keep things going, and two, production doesn't matter if there's no place to distribute it--pbs is the only appropriate place and it's a completely separate entity. if we learned one important lesson from street gang, it's that sesame street and pbs are dependent on each other and the existence of both is far less stable than we think.

Oh, absolutely... I remember when a bunch of tax cut hungry pundits said "Oh yeah... Sesame Street could survive on any network! it doesn't need PBS." Absolute bull, and a complete ignorance about how children's media works. You think things on the street are bad now? Could you imagine a commercial network cutting the show to a half hour, making it all about Elmo for ratings sake... and then for cost cutting sake, replacing the puppet Elmo and Kevin Clash with an Indian CGI and a cheap Canadian VA sound-a-like. And of course, talking even further down to kids, because... you know Dora makes a lot of money, so we have to keep making shows EXACTLY like that.

I watched something today, and someone was talking about how much tax money actually goes to NASA... you know how much? 6/10's of a penny per tax payer. I'm sure PBS would be a small fraction of a penny too. Certainly much less than funding Vice Presidential Libraries and the commission to rename everything after Regan for some reason. And if they can't get government funding, FINE.... people who have the money and fancy themselves elitists and whine about how TV is corrupting children with cereal commercials (GASP!) and acts of mild violence (horrors) GIVE... Give to PBS and not to some foundation to stomp out Childhood.

 

[The Shoe Fairy]

I see this happen everywhere, and it's appalling. Remember when everyone said that the tax cuts stimulated the economy? They did at first, but then again, people turned a nice blind eye to what they were losing. Remember how Firefighters became heroes? Well, while people were admiring the hero worship, we didn't notice the drastic cuts made to budgets to accommodate ill conceived tax cuts that actually closed many Firehouses... and now many, many more are on the chopping block. We NEED our fire houses, libraries and schools a lot more than Exxon needs to pad their profits and not actually invest that money in anything.

Could you imagine a commercial network cutting the show to a half hour, making it all about Elmo for ratings sake... and then for cost cutting sake, replacing the puppet Elmo and Kevin Clash with an Indian CGI and a cheap Canadian VA sound-a-like. And of course, talking even further down to kids, because... you know Dora makes a lot of money, so we have to keep making shows EXACTLY like that.

I think that the industry for Oil won't be around much longer, and because of this the governments of the world will try and keep these huge corporations afloat, when really they should be spending it on the communites of their country, whether it be a TV station or a Fire Department.

I don't see the value in TV shows like Dora, they have no educational bonus, and if parents want something interactive, buy the kid a console and a few educational games. Shows like Dora talk down to kids, and what children see in it I have no idea. Let alone the fact that teenage girls spend almost as much money on Dora merch as a toddler's mother would. Besides, I bet that Dora ripped off SST, Cause Rosita was there first.

 

[Drtooth]

I think that the industry for Oil won't be around much longer, and because of this the governments of the world will try and keep these huge corporations afloat, when really they should be spending it on the communites of their country, whether it be a TV station or a Fire Department.

The oil industry will be around forever. Their underhanded deeds kept them afloat this long... Too bad that our dependence on them is such a tight grip. but hey, whatchagonna do? Redesign every single automobile and replace everyone on Earth's cars and trucks with some sort of electric engine? Can't be done. Too bad we've been going at a snail's pace in finding alternates since the first crisis in the 70's. Face it, we created a Frankenstein, and now it's rampaging our village.

I don't see the value in TV shows like Dora, they have no educational bonus, and if parents want something interactive, buy the kid a console and a few educational games. Shows like Dora talk down to kids, and what children see in it I have no idea. Let alone the fact that teenage girls spend almost as much money on Dora merch as a toddler's mother would. Besides, I bet that Dora ripped off SST, Cause Rosita was there first.

Dora, if it ripped off anything, would technically be a knockoff of Blue's Clues. I never understood why people bother making a one way medium like television interactive, since we live in, oh, 2009. We have computer games both for sale and free. You can go to PBS's kid's website and play all these sorts of games. We do not need some slow moving and acting characters shouting at them to find something while the characters on Tv answer their own questions five minutes later. And yet, people think it's a wonderful model, and copy it for every single commercial toddler show. Even Mickey does it.

Sesame Street is interactive the same way Mr. Rogers was. They treat the home audience as a guest, say "Oh! Hello! Welcome to Sesame Street." and maybe, maybe ask you to sing along or count along or something like that. Not "Which triangle is the green triangle?" Unfortunately, they started that sort of thing in the 90's with Elmo's World... and then things like JTE... of course, they did a much better job than Dora, but gladly most of them are gone. look, I've been ranting how children's TV is treated in the US for years now. Only way to make a profit is by suckering parents into thinking plopping them down in front of patronizing garbage will make their kid's geniuses. Even though a lot of Pediatricians say how unbenificial they are.... but people keep buying Baby Einstein....

 

[mbmfrog]

At times like these it would be nice to see one of those marathon funraisers to rasie money to save PBS, while seeing new SS stuff and other PBS shows for kids and remind the public of how they differ from the other channels.

 

[CensoredAlso]

At times like these it would be nice to see one of those marathon funraisers to rasie money to save PBS, while seeing new SS stuff and other PBS shows for kids and remind the public of how they differ from the other channels.

That's true, something big would need to get audiences attention. Sesame Street would really need to make itself known in some kind of TV event, and not just an Elmo-fest, something that would be more far reaching.