Fred Rogers Defends PBS

[jeriendhal]

Context 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 make Republicans 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.

Comments

[jvowles.livejournal.com]

And that is why nobody EVER f*cked with Fred Rogers. He was too smart, too compassionate, too *real* for anyone.

If more people in the world were like him....well, it wouldn't suck so much.

[the-blue-fenix.livejournal.com]

I never knew until I was an adult that Mr. Rogers was a minister. It does add a level to the words 'neighbor' and 'neighborhood' that I can still appreciate even in my atheist middle age.

Every once in a while, not often enough, you see someone like him. That is not a time to argue religious details with them. That's a time to follow them around as close as possible. There's always a chance it might be contagious.

[lacousteau.livejournal.com]

I don't think the genius of Fred Rodgers is truly realized until you watch a child watch the Neighborhood. Small children interact with Mr. Rodgers as if he is the only big person to understand what they are going through. He wasn't loud or threatening, but strong and certain. When he told the children that sometimes your world is scary, but you are loved and you are going to be okay, they had every reason to believe him. He never promised anything that could not be delivered. He even sent the message that adults are sometimes wrong and, just like children, we need to manage our feelings, say we are sorry, and be kind to the others in the Neighborhood. His message is priceless.

Public Television gets my donation every year. In thanks for what they have given us and in anticipation of what we are still to learn.