Fred Rogers speech defending PBS funding?

June 6, 2004 9:39 AM

Does anyone know where I can find a copy of Mr. Roger's speech to Congress (?) defending the funds allocated to public television? A transcription is fine, but I'd also love a movie of it.

I've googled without results, but it may be because I'm not fully familiar with the story.

posted by o2b to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

I know that my local PBS (WQED Pittsburgh, home of Mr. Rogers) aired this speech when Mr. Rogers passed away. WQED also made a documentary about Mr. Rogers that is narrated Michael Keaton. Part of the speech is included in the special. Not sure on availibility of it though outside of a pledge premium. Check listings of your local public broadcaster.

I believe that the speech is in front of a Senate or House Subcommitte. It looks like something out of a film. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was a new idea, and needed funding. Gruff legislator, thinks nothing of public television. Then Mr. Rogers gives lyrics from his show and talks all about the wonderful things he tells children. The man is instantly converted, and goes "That's wonderful. You got your five million dollars" (or whatever the amount). To help your search, PBS was called National Educational Television, or NET, back then (I think the speech was Nixon era).
posted by ALongDecember at 9:59 AM on June 6, 2004

Better (and correct) history of PBS and NET here.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created in 1967. The speech maybe happened around there.
posted by ALongDecember at 10:09 AM on June 6, 2004

"This is what I give. I give an expression of care every day to each child, to help him realize that he is unique. I end each program by saying, 'You've made this day a special day by just your being you. There's no person in the whole world like you. And I like you just the way you are.' And I feel that if we in public television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service." (1) (2)

Someone familiar with government archives might be able to find the entire transcript for you.

On funding issues, in 1969, Rogers appeared before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications (a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce). Rogers accompanied Hartford N. Gunn, Jr., the general manager of WBGH in Boston, to support increased government appropriations for public broadcasting. Gunn argued that as federal funds fell for public broadcasting in 1968, fewer stations would apply for licenses. But the highlight of the hearing appears to have been Rogers' fifteen-minute testimony and his dialogue with the subcommittee chair, Senator John O. Pastore, a Democrat from Rhode Island. Rogers spoke with his familiar quiet passion about the social and emotional learning young children need to grow up as confident and constructive members of society, and how alternative television programming such as the Neighborhood could help nurture these qualities in children—especially by contrast to other messages children were receiving from popular culture and media. Pastore, who had not previously seen any of Rogers' work, indicated he was now anxious to view the program, told Rogers that what he heard gave him goosebumps, and that the impact of Rogers' testimony was "I think you just got your twenty million dollars." 22 Congressional appropriations were made two years in advance; counting forward to 1971, PBS funding increased from $9 million to $22 million after the Pastore committee hearings. (3)

1. Fred Rogers: America's Favorite Neighbor," documentary film jointly produced by WQED-Pittsburgh and Family Communications, Inc. hosted by actor Michael Keaton (a former backstage employee of Rogers' on the Neighborhood), May 2003.
2. From his impassioned 1969 appearance before the U.S. Senate. Fred Rogers: America's Favorite Neighbor is currently being offered as a PBS Pledge Premium, and is therefore not available for purchase at this time.
3. (see 1)
posted by sequential at 10:33 AM on June 6, 2004

Here it is, of all places, at the Rotten Library.
posted by Keyser Soze at 1:21 PM on June 6, 2004

The man was a hero, in the true sense of the word.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 4:07 PM on June 6, 2004