Sesame Street Stars Help CWA, Allies Fight to Save Public Broadcasting

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) champions public broadcasting at a Tuesday news conference on Capitol Hill.

Below: AFTRA-represented Sesame Street actors help deliver 1.2 million petition signatures to Congress in support of federal funding for public broadcasting.
Photo by Ursula Lawrence, Writers Guild of America East.

Allies working with CWA to save public media delivered petitions signed by 1.2 million Americans to Congress on Tuesday, as Republicans continued to try to eliminate all federal funding for NPR, PBS and the nation's network of local public stations.

Four AFTRA-represented Sesame Street stars joined CWA, Writers Guild of America East members, Free Press, Move On and other allies for a news conference on Capitol Hill. Speakers included Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), one of the leading voices in Congress for public broadcasting.

"As traditional news outlets lay off reporters and offer less coverage of important topics, public broadcasting is filling the gap, bringing critical news and information to communities across the country," Blumenauer said. "What's more, public broadcasting stations are the only source of free programming that educates our children rather than the many commercial stations simply trying to sell them products."

Blumenauer noted a poll last week showing that Americans rank public broadcasting as one of the two best uses of taxpayer dollars, second only to funding the troops.

Sesame Street stars, who later helped deliver the petitions to lawmakers, described how the program has affected them and tens of millions of children. "It has changed all of us and has given us as artists a place to work with such pride," said Roscoe Orman, who plays Gordon. Bob McGrath, "Bob" on the show, said public broadcasting is a "necessity to our society, not a frill."

NABET-CWA President Jim Joyce said Republicans targeting public broadcasting are painting it as a "Washington" institution, when it is really a nationwide network of stations providing local jobs and diverse programming that 170 million Americans tune in to every day.

For many of those Americans in rural areas not served by cable, and families that can't afford anything but over-the-air TV, losing their local PBS station would be devastating, Joyce said. "Millions of people have no other source for local journalism, no other source for classical music, no other source for educational television for their children," he said.

CWA, NABET-CWA and TNG-CWA together represent about 2,000 workers at PBS, NPR and local public broadcasting stations. They include members of CWA Local 1300 who work on NOVA, Frontline, American Experience and other high-quality documentaries, all of which are at risk.

Click here to learn more and join CWA's campaign to save public broadcasting.