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Re: the post from "Freelance"
Mr. Rogers grosses $2 million/year on associated products, such as tee
shirts, etc. Sesame Street has 5,000 licensed products grossing $800 million
-- as big as Jurassic Park. No federal money is needed for either program,
they are, in fact, commercial operations at the present time, albeit
conducted by non-profit corporations. Therefore CPB funding is not a
necessity for either, and they would not be affected by such federal cuts.
Further, the 20th Century Fund report "Quality Time?" recommended elminating
all community service grants to local PBS stations.
Elimination of the 14% of the public broadcasting budget which is the federal
subsidy would simply force PBS to be more efficient in the use of money from
other sources.
BTW, American kids learned to read and the country had higher literacy rates
before there was a Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers.
Larry Jarvik
CSPC