Fred Rogers Defends PBS
Dec. 4th, 2009 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalContext for non-USAians: Fred Rogers was the host of "Mister Rogers' Nieghborhood" a children's program that ran on the Public Broadcasting System [1] for over thirty years. It was pretty much the dead opposite of childrens programming you'd see on a commercial network, slow paced, quiet, and the format barely changing (as in sometimes they'd introduce a new puppet in the Land of Make Believe) in three decades. And as much as the show itself was mocked in its later years, you never ever could disrespect Rogers for doing it. No one did. Legend has it that when the man had his car stolen, and the fact was reported on the news, the thief returned the car with an apology note.
Anyway, a few years after the Public Broadcasting System was established by President Johnson, Nixon attempted to cut its funding in half, from $20 million to $10 million.
Now watch as a mild mannered, squeaky voice Presbyterian minister [2] verbally pwns a United States senator holding his budget strings.
[1] Unlike most western nations, the United States doesn't exactly have a government run television channel. The PBS recieves a government grant, but also recieves much of its funding from corporate sponsors (who get a "in association with" bumper at the start of the shows they fund) and private donations from citizens during annual funding drives run by individual PBS stations. Essentially it's a government funded non-profit organization, but the programming isn't dictated by government officials. A fact which tends to makeRepublicans elected officials who don't like being called out on its news programs to periodically threaten to cut off its funding.
[2] His religious affilation was never a point on the show. The man led by example, not by waving his supposed superiority over people.
Anyway, a few years after the Public Broadcasting System was established by President Johnson, Nixon attempted to cut its funding in half, from $20 million to $10 million.
Now watch as a mild mannered, squeaky voice Presbyterian minister [2] verbally pwns a United States senator holding his budget strings.
[1] Unlike most western nations, the United States doesn't exactly have a government run television channel. The PBS recieves a government grant, but also recieves much of its funding from corporate sponsors (who get a "in association with" bumper at the start of the shows they fund) and private donations from citizens during annual funding drives run by individual PBS stations. Essentially it's a government funded non-profit organization, but the programming isn't dictated by government officials. A fact which tends to make
[2] His religious affilation was never a point on the show. The man led by example, not by waving his supposed superiority over people.
