It’s not easy being green.
This just in from my midwife (yes I have a midwife…hey, you never know):
Hi,
You know that email petition that keeps circulating about how Congress is slashing funding for NPR and PBS? Well, now it’s actually true. (Really. Check the footnotes if you don’t believe me.)
Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS:
http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/
A House panel has voted to eliminate all funding for NPR and PBS, starting with “Sesame Street,” “Reading Rainbow,” and other commercial-free children’s shows. If approved, this would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting, threatening to pull the plug on Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch.
The cuts would slash 25% of the federal funding this year — $100 million — and end funding altogether within two years. The loss could kill beloved children’s shows like “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” “Arthur,” and “Postcards from Buster.” Rural stations and those serving low-incom
e communities might not survive. Other stations would have to increase corporate sponsorships.
If we can reach 250,000 signatures by the end of the week, we’ll put Congress on notice.
http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/
Thanks!
P.S. Read the Washington Post report on the threat to NPR and PBS at:
June 15th, 2005 at 5:40 am
Excellent! It’s about time that “Public” Broadcasting was privatized! Look, why should any funding of PBS be involuntary (tax money)? Should the federal government really be running a broadcast network? What’s next, a chain of restaurants? Let’s say that the programming is as wonderful as the government says it is. Would it not, then, be easy to raise money for it, either by individual donation, corporate sponsorship, etc? Look, worst case senario - you get George Soros to cut a check!
June 15th, 2005 at 6:15 am
Great idea Jonathan! Hey, I’ve got an even better one. Perhaps the McDonald’s Corporation will pick up on this and BUY “public” broadcasting. Then kids will grow up with the likes of Ronald McDonald, Grimace and the Hamburgular instead of Mr. Rogers, Big Bird and the Cookie Monster. Then Morgan Spurlock’s nightmare will become a reality and everyone will be Super Sizing!
June 15th, 2005 at 4:34 pm
It seems unlikely that McDonalds would be intersted; after all, they are in the fast food business, not the propaganda business. Hmmm…I think I figured out why the government wants it!
As a member of Great Unwashed Masses, I take exception to the notion that we are idiots that will be controlled by either corporations or the government.