Regarding the pending cancellation of PBS funding for children’s shows like Sesame Street… and the fight to save them…
Kids shouldn’t even be watching television… cut the public funding of those shows, go outside and play in the yard with your child.
I have a 1 year old son, and he doesn’t watch TV– we don’t let him. Some important sounding medical association (American Academy of Pediatrics) says children under 2 should not watch any television — none. Even if children’s shows are considered “good” by lots of parents, shows like Sesame Street or the current fad of “Baby Einstein” videos are often abused as electronic baby-sitters. Getting kids hooked on these “good” shows is not the ideal situation… I’d rather get my son hooked on reading, writing, drawing, or running around the yard— not sitting in front of the television with a blank stare, drooling on the carpet. To be fair, that same link above says that for children older than two years of age, “high-quality, nonviolent children’s shows can have a positive effect on learning.”
If Sesame Street is so important to so many people… let the market decide its fate.. Personally, I’d buy Sesame Street books or toys, but I won’t be buying many videos… And if there’s a market there to take my dollars, why is the government involved with this? Why should Elmo have an unfair advantage over Papa Smurf (or G.I. Joe or Optimus Prime or He-Man or Jason– the Red Power Ranger, etc…)
Don’t get me wrong, I loved Sesame Street growing up and I usually vote Democrat– I love giving free stuff to those low-income folks with my hard-earned tax dollars… But I’d rather give them a Sesame Street book, not a commercial free hour of TV sponsored by the Letter R. I usually hate all things Republican, but on the issue of funding children’s television shows through PBS, I happen to agree with the bastards.
Other PBS shows like Nova or the News Hour should be saved, however. NPR should be saved, too… These shows provide a very important news service and it is sad to see the government try to slash their funding because they’re not as “fair and balanced” (read “friendly to Bush”) as other media.
So maybe I’ll sign the petition after all, if only to save the good stuff like the news shows… But please, don’t make “Save Big Bird” the rallying cry for this thing… He doesn’t need saving.
Are you serious? Canning Sesame Street isn’t going make kids go outside and play. In fact, the opposite will be true. Kids who currently watch Sesame Street will watch something else instead, almost certainly commercial — and boy, you should read the medical data on that one. Commercial laden television is giving kids short attention spans, selling them fast food and teaching them bad habits for life. Commercial television has an incentive to keep kids in front of it — and they’re effective at doing it too. A research group somewhere is even looking into commercial television as a factor for ADHD.
Sesame Street on the other hand promotes good nutrition, healthy exercise and basic learning skills. Most importantly, it’s commercial free. So yeah, I’d rather have kids watch that, brought to them by the letter R or the letter D (I don’t really care), as long as they aren’t watching Power Rangers, brought to them by McDonalds, Coca Cola and Barbie.
Good on you for getting your kids out in the backyard and away from the television, but don’t penalise those kids who aren’t as lucky to have a parent like you. Publicly funded programs like Sesame Street are fighting a losing battle in this commercial world — they need more funding, not less.
You might want to check out the mission statement of Sesame Street sometime.
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/aboutus/intro.php
Also, take a look at the segment descriptions for some of the most recent health and nutrition related episodes.
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/press_kit/healthrs.php
Link | June 23rd, 2005 at 9:09 am
I agree Adam. Seasame Street is a great show that can be a valuable part of a childs development. Should they be watching it at age 2? No. But as my kid enters age 4-ish, after they’ve learned to use their imagination, I have no problem letting them watch public television.
Link | June 28th, 2005 at 2:19 pm
I resent that I have to pay for it regardless. Personally, I was presently surprised by The Disney Channel. There are no commercials, the programming is superior to PBS as well as the production quality. It is subsidized by my active will (cable bill) versus taken from me at a point of a gun so that others can watch it were I have no interest. I like the government building roads and providing defense but I draw the line at subsidizing media (and most everything else as well).
It is moot because I no longer have a television. So now we (my family) pays so that others can watch whereas we can not even afford ourselves of that which we help pay for through taxation.
It would be hard to convince me that PBS does not lean to the left. From Bill Moyers to Gerrison Keillor to Juan Williams and the various ‘news’ or commentary shows it is primarily left. It would be curious to hear the opinions of that side of the political landscape if the reverse were the case.
Link | August 30th, 2005 at 3:32 pm