PBS, along with [[NPR]], has been accused of aiming its broadcast toward wealthy, elite segments of the American population while neglecting others, who nonethless pay for the programming. When Congress debated cutting funding for NPR and PBS, House Democrats appealed to the children's programming on PBS such as [[Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood]] (1968-2001) and [[Sesame Street]] (1969-present). Puppets of Sesame Street characters were brought into the House chambers, and Rep. [[Ed Markey]] (D-MA) commented: "Oscar the Grouch has been friendlier to the Sesame Street characters than President Bush." [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4693682.stm] Most of PBS's programming, however, is aimed at children as they feed over 12 hours of children's programming every day of the week versus 6-8 hours of adult programming. | PBS, along with [[NPR]], has been accused of aiming its broadcast toward wealthy, elite segments of the American population while neglecting others, who nonethless pay for the programming. When Congress debated cutting funding for NPR and PBS, House Democrats appealed to the children's programming on PBS such as [[Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood]] (1968-2001) and [[Sesame Street]] (1969-present). Puppets of Sesame Street characters were brought into the House chambers, and Rep. [[Ed Markey]] (D-MA) commented: "Oscar the Grouch has been friendlier to the Sesame Street characters than President Bush." [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4693682.stm] Most of PBS's programming, however, is aimed at children as they feed over 12 hours of children's programming every day of the week versus 6-8 hours of adult programming. |