the child is appreciated for what he will be he will be a great consumer someday listen the
quicker we can get them to go out and buy the better there's so much of that in this country
mr ellison i think you have felt strongly about some aspects of this public television could
make a contribution as the american people becomes aware of itself
it discovers itself we do not know as much as we should know about who we are
what we are and how we differ how will man use his miracles the answer just begins with
public television we want most of all to enrich man's spirit
and that is the purpose of this act then nixon became president and he wanted to cut the funding
the beginnings of pbs was gonna probably be dismantled by richard nixon whose approach to
media was to threaten stations if they didn't behave politically nixon had a problem with his
budget he had to find money for the vietnam war it went a lot of money in today's terms
but he wanted to cut the budget in the midst of all this fred rogers gets to go before congress
argue for 20 million dollars of funding to sort of solidify pbs in front of john pastore
who's the senator who had already sort of made his congressional bones by attacking television
this is going to be a thorough hearing this is going to be a hearing not to reach for a headline
but to reach for a result there have been two days of hearings and he hasn't been very impressed if
you've been watching those hearings and you had to bet on whether or not pbs was going to keep going
no that educational television should permanently struggle for subsistence is intolerable
all right who's the next witness senator pastore told the group i've heard everybody
read your testimonies i don't want anyone to read anymore i'm tired of hearing the reading
when i heard about that i thought uh oh fred all right rogers you got the flaw
and i could hear in his voice the the nerves senator pastore
this is a philosophical statement and would take about 10 minutes to read so i'll not do that
oh one of the first things that a child learns in a healthy family is trust
and i trust what you have said that you will read this it's very important to me
i care deeply about children my first will it make you happy if you read it
i'd just like to talk about it if i'm sorry 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 the 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
uh could i tell you the words of one of the songs which i feel is very important yes this has to
do with that good feeling of control which i feel that the children need to know is there
and it starts out what do you do with the mad that you feel and that first line came
straight from a child i work with children doing puppets in in very personal communication with
small groups what do you do with the mad that you feel when you feel so mad you could bite
when the whole wide world seems oh so wrong and nothing you do seems very right
it's great to be able to stop when you've planned a thing that's wrong and be able to do something
else instead and think this song i can stop when i want to can stop when i wish can stop stop stop
anytime know that there's something deep inside that helps us become what we can
i think it's wonderful i think it's wonderful
looks like you just earned the 20 million dollars
fred rogers was easily the star of the show and if children had votes
public television would be on easy street tomorrow
oh wow everything just sort of exploded
you know suddenly there was press beating a path to our door good evening i was in pittsburgh a few
days ago doing a bit of investigative reporting on a man named fred rogers
wonderful meow mr rogers has 10 different voices for 10 different puppets well a
he writes he's the producer he is the chief performer and he is a marvel fred rogers as best
i can tell has managed to escape the calloused the embittered the negative aspects of being a public
performer he is doing the one thing in the world that he wishes to do and he is by any definition
you