PBS and NPR do NOT need tax payer’s dollars to be on TV

From: Dave R.

Sent: October 21, 2012

To: undisclosed recipients

Subject: Fw: PBS and NPR do NOT need tax payer’s dollars to be on TV

I have sent this out in other e-mails but will provide again as a gentle reminder and perhaps expand on it just a little bit – some still just don’t get it.
First I agree with Romney – PBS/NPR do NOT need tax payer’s dollars to be on TV. With the amount of money the Congress is spending and the debt we owe plus money must now be borrowed from China, Japan and others to pay our bills – it’s time to take a look at what tax dollars are being spent on. I know everyone has their favorites. Each time I hear or can give examples of either waste, fraud and/or unnecessary expenditures – I let my Congressman and Senators know my feelings on them. We have to start somewhere folks. The old saying “The way to a one thousand mile trip is the first step.”
Second Sesame Street, Big Bird, Elmo, and all the rest are making Billions of dollars each year in merchandising of the products by Sesame Street – i.e. Tickle me Elmo, lunch boxes, dolls, toys, etc. and the companies and individuals who have become Billionaires because of Sesame Street and what did it cost them? Nothing. The tax payers funded it. Imagine if you came up with a product and the tax payers set up your company, paid your employees and you sold the product and made Billions and it cost you nothing? Would you like that scenario? I know I would. So where does all that money go? Forget about Toys R Us, Tyco, and all the other companies that make these products (Billion Dollar Companies all) and think about this for a minute. . .

President Obama, who has railed against the “fat-cat bankers on Wall Street” and the wealthy, has been an eager defender of Big Bird and public broadcasting this week in light of Mitt Romney’s comments that he would defund it in last week’s debate. But it turns out that many of those behind Big Bird are actually members of the 1 percent themselves (anyone with a total income of $343,927 or more as of 2009), based on their salaries. NPR’s Bill Moyers has his show completely funded by the tax payers. What does he do with the huge salary paid to him by NPR, the money he receives from speaking engagements and all the money made on his numerous books that he has sold – he is a millionaire at our expense.

At Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to the CPB’s 2011 tax forms:
Patricia De Stacy Harrison, president and CEO $361,895
At PBS, according to 2011 tax forms:
Paula Kerger, president and CEO $669,260
Michael Jones, chief operating officer $477,296
Barbara Landes, chief financial officer, treasurer, and senior vice president $402,355
Katherine Lauderdale, senior vice president and general counsel, $381,855.
At Sesame Workshop, according to 2011 tax forms:
Gary Knell, president and CEO of Sesame Workshop until October 2011, $988,456
H. Melvin Ming, current president and CEO, $584,572
Lewis Bernstein $406,387
Terry Fitzpatrick $439,741
Myung Kang-Huneke $389,005
Sherrie Westin $463,892
Susan Kolar $401,425
Miranda Barry $397,175
Maura Regan $379,733
Joseph Mazzarino $556,165
Caralynn Sandorf $354,476
Anita Stewart $455,369

And while the actor who plays Big Bird (Carroll Spinney) doesn’t have a salary that puts him in the 1 percent, he’s not far off: Spinney makes $314,072.
And who’s funding this? Well, in part, taxpayers: the federal government gave the CPB a grant of $444.1 million in 2012.

Yes, I like Sesame Street and my kids, grandkids and great grandkids all watched it but if Barney, Scooby Doo, Smurfs, Thomas the Train, Speed Racer, Johnny Quest, Dragon Tales, Top Cat, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Tom and Jerry, Roadrunner, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Jetsons, Flintstones, Sharktales, Dora, Carman Sandiego, Little Mermaid, Felix the Cat, Bugs Bunny, Poekmon, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Bob the Builder, (and hundreds of others) can all pay their way without tax dollars – why then can’t Sesame Street? Ever think of that – when some of your more Liberal Friends say “Romney (or you and your mean old Republican friends) want to do away with Sesame Street – tell them ‘no’ I just want them to pay their way like everyone else – and you can give them hundreds of examples.
The president of the United States’ main job is the protect and defend America (you and I) – not Big Bird.

Protect your friends:
Please do not forward emails unless you delete all the addresses of those who forwarded the email to you, as I just did. ~Dave