PBS Grows Increasingly Hostile Toward Mitt Romney
The reaction goes from playful to blistering.
1. The debate point that started it all on Wednesday night, when Romney said he would defund PBS in order to help pay down the defecit:
Watch the video here.
2. The first PBS-affiliated statements were playful, coming via the Sesame Street Twitter accounts Thursday morning:
3. Then, PBS CEO Paula Kerger issued a more aggressive statement to CNN:
Watch her interview.
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Cade 7 months agoJust to clarify for people who may be a little confused: The money made off of Sesame Street licensed products - toys, books, etc. - does not go to PBS. That money goes to the Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization that created Sesame Street and also creates all affiliated educational programs worldwide. Originally, the Sesame Workshop was funded by grants, but eventually they decided that depending on grants did not guarantee the financial consistency and confidence that they needed to ensure their programming could run without fear of losing funding. Again, the organization is non-profit and runs the “Sesame Street” programs in all nations, so nobody is getting “rich” off of the show, as that is specifically against the ideals that led to the show’s creation. What most people may not understand about PBS programming is that the vast majority of it is not created by PBS, but in effect licensed to PBS to air, much the same way that TV shows on any broadcast network are, the main difference being that while TV shows on other networks give them the benefit of increased advertising revenue based on the ratings they get, PBS expressly doesn’t run advertising during their shows, so no show is truly a “moneymaker” for PBS in the way some might think they would be. Another key difference between PBS and other networks, and why it’s problematic for PBS to become a private entity, is that when regular broadcast networks like CBS or NBC have advertisers, the advertisers have influence on the content of the shows their commercials play in. If a show has a controversial episode or loses ratings, they can pull their advertising, or even threaten to pull their advertising, causing the network to demand changes to the show that those shows may well be contractually obligated to abide by. PBS, on the other hand, is funded by government funding, private donation via telethons, and corporate funding. Corporate funding is different than advertising - when a corporation donates to PBS, they pay their money upfront or make an agreement to make that donation, which means that the money goes to PBS regardless of the content of programming, giving PBS and their programs full creative control. In addition, one of the biggest incentives for corporations to donate to PBS is that those donations are tax-deductible. If PBS goes private, any funding given to them will no longer be tax-deductible, which means many corporations, as well as many wealthy and non-wealthy individual contributors, will have no reason to give money to public broadcasting. This all applies to NPR stations as well. If you want public broadcasting to maintain its level of quality and educational value, it needs to be able to depend on the stability of government funding and the assurance of tax-deductibility for charitable donations. You shouldn’t consider it a burden that a very small percentage of your tax dollars go towards funding quality public broadcasting. You should consider it a privilege.
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- schmoo thinks PBS Grows Increasingly Hostile Toward... is Win
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spinthestars 7 months ago0.012% of the national budget for quality education programming, but that was the focus of Romney’s budget plan.
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Brian H. 7 months agoWhy doesn’t PBS go private? There was a more of case for CPB when there was just the Big 3 networks but now there isn’t. I know it’s scary but I really believe that PBS would do well if they went private. They have a lot of quality programming that are popular. The need for public funding is over.
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delicious kiwis 7 months agoHe didn’t say he was cutting pbs off the air, but to stop government spending on it. There are still private donors and fundraisers. Besides, for being a show on a nonprofit station, sesame street sure does generate a lot of profit for itself with all the licensed merchandise they sell. Them being the biggest, bit also barney, and other children’s shows that sells toys, party favors, dvds, etc. If they are that concerned, they can surely afford to keep themselves on the air. Sometimes when you owe more than you have, you need to sacrifice things you wish you didn’t have to. As adults we should all realize that is a part of life.
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Ladyjenn925 7 months ago
Really taking money out of pbs… Really theres other more useless things u can take money from! Romney is a fucking tard!!
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oh_the_hugh_manatee 7 months ago
I read this somewhere, can’t remember the source, but it’s soooooo true: “cutting funding for PBS to help lower the defeceit is like deleting .txt files to gain more hard drive space.”
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Maren W. 7 months ago
The Sesame Workshop is not PBS. So no, there wasn’t an increase of “hostility”—there were two different organizations making separate statements.
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