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February 1995, Week 3

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Subject:
From:
Adrian Peter Crowne <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 20 Feb 1995 16:52:18 CST
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----------------------------Original message----------------------------
 
 
On Sun, 19 Feb 1995 [log in to unmask] wrote:
 
> 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.
 
While it is true that both of those programs gross a lot of money, the
stations that broadcast them do not.  The cut to CPB would not hurt those
programs, except that they would be forced to move to commercial
broadcasting.  That is the danger.  Once on commercial television, it is
subject to totally new rules--capitalism.  Capitalism is unfair as it
regards children because it forces them to make judgements about what
they see that they cannot because of their maturity level.  Right now on
commercial broadcasting there is a total of between 2 and 5 hours per week
per station of educational programming.  The rest is garbage that a child
cannot help from being affected by.  Public broadcasting allows for
quality programs directed toward a minority audience.  On NPR programs
include Afropop Worldwide, Wade in the Water, Latino USA, and a number of
other programs geared toward a very specific audience.  There is nothing
that remotely resembles NPR programming in the commercial market, and
while NPR only gets about 20% of their funding from CPB, the stations
rely on it for stability.  Without the stations, there can be no NPR or
PBS.  It's that simple.  Congress is attacking CPB and the NEA because
they are seen as sources of liberal elitism and constantly questioning
the norm.  But that is the purpose of the arts--to push society on to new
issues and questions and always scrutinize.
 
> 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.
 
Staions receive extremely limited funding from other sources, and I would
call into question the 14% figure as the total CPB funding they receive.
Regardless of its accuracy, though, it becomes a foundation from which
they can acquire outside funding.  Outside funding is constantly
changing, and without something to count on, it is very difficult to
convince others to fund.
 
> BTW, American kids learned to read and the country had higher literacy rates
> before there was a Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers.
 
Give me a break.  You couldn't possibly be trying to draw a connection here.
 
Adrian

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