Congress Votes: Stop Funding PBS-VOTERS WRITE!

[Fozzie Bear]

As of this morning I hadn't received any letters back.

Well, gang. I wonder if Sesame Workshop isn't going to get involved in the politics of this and see about getting word to Congress about the importance of educational programming--not necessarily the news--on PBS and why it's important to fund the CPB.

 

[Jessica]

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​

 

[sarah_yzma]

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 )

 

[MrsPepper]

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?

 

[sarah_yzma]

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

 

[MrsPepper]

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

 

[sarah_yzma]

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

 

[MrsPepper]

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

 

[sarah_yzma]

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

 

[Drtooth]

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.