I Cut You, You Cut Me, Don’t Cut Funding For TV

On a recent Sunday, I sat in my basement by a crackling fire, drinking my coffee and reading Cal Thomas’ column about television’s negative effects on children. He ignored a crucial point: The programming he laments, from MTV to “The Simpsons,” is commercial television.

As I read his concerns, which I share, my 4-year-old daughter Katie was practicing her fire safety, with “stop, drop and roll” rehearsals, inspired by that morning’s “Dudley the Dragon” on PBS.

That’s right, PBS the programming under attack by conservatives like Thomas who say they are concerned about family values, about kids learning violence, about low test scores….

We don’t watch much television at our house. We mostly watch videos we select and a few Saturday morning cartoons, which my husband and I generally watch with our daughter so we can discuss the show and counteract messages we don’t agree with. The only shows we feel completely comfortable allowing her to watch unsupervised are on PBS.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich praises the free market and says that with all the merchandising of “Sesame Street” characters, they could easily make it on commercial television. He’s missing the point - I don’t want my child watching commercials.

If she’s going to watch TV, I want her watching quality television uninterrupted by ads for oversugared cereals, toys that glorify violence, and dolls with more attachments than my food processor. I want her watching shows that teach fire safety, understanding of other cultures, peaceful conflict resolution, the alphabet, geography, and other subjects featured on public television, but sorely lacking on commercial TV. And I don’t want quality children’s programming available only to those who can afford cable TV.

Instead of cutting dollars, Gingrich and friends are cutting pennies by going after educational programming that I suspect will be lost if public television has to sell cereal to stay alive.

I’ll gladly pay the few pennies of my taxes that support Dudley, Big Bird and even Barney. They do more in one half-hour for family values, nonviolence, and education than a whole weekend of free-market television. And with the rest of our time, I’ll read a book to Katie.

MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion page. To submit a column for consideration, call Rebecca Nappi/459-5496, or Doug Floyd/459-5466.