Reply to Sesame Street becoming HBO exclusive

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If the Republicans are going to do this to PBS funding, I'm glad that HBO is picking it up and that the new episodes will eventually make it onto PBS. Having Sesame Street on PBS is a great educational outlet for children in poverty, who might not have access to things like high-quality preschool, or even parents who themselves can read and teach literacy.[/quote]

Do what?  Did a law defunding PBS pass both houses of Congress?  Did the President sign it?[/quote]

My understanding is that the Children's Television Workshop ( Sesame Street is the flagship show) has lost a lot of revenue in recent years due to declining sales in DVD's and licensing fees. There are pros and cons to this. The pros are that they will be able to make twice as many episodes and will have revenue to make other shows. The bad side is that affluent kids will get to watch the new episodes before kids who cannot afford HBO. The irony in this of course is that Sesame Street was created in the 1960's in the first place to help poor kids who are deprived of early education or live in homes without English speakers keep up with more affluent kids and close the education gap. Studies show that it succeeded greatly.
I think that in the long run, this is not really such a bad thing in a practical sense since those shows will be free on PBS 9 months later ( they will continue to show reruns until then on PBS). It is just sort of galling that a show created for lower-income kids is being made available to more affluent kids first. A sign of the times. Congress established PBS and NPR in 1967. That would never happen today. Mitt Romney famously told the debate moderator Jim Lehrer:

"I'm sorry Jim. I'm gonna stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm gonna stop other things," Romney said. "I like PBS, I like Big Bird, I actually like you too." Conservatives of course loved this moment.

PBS receives a tiny amount of Federal funding. To suggest that cutting it would have any impact on our budget deficit is absurd, but it would hurt PBS. It would be sad if our country could not find enough money to help subsidize great educational television.[/quote]

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