"Want to know why PBS is so popular that its funding is likely to be saved? It isn't Bill Moyers, bless his heart, or 'Antiques Roadshow.' It's the PBS safety zone for kids programming."
Ellen Goodman, The Boston Globe
Creating a Diversion
“The kid-TV issue seems a smokescreen for pushing a la carte cable.”
Monica Collins, The Boston Globe
Let Them Eat Pebbles
“The average child watches more than 40,000 commercials per year, and more than half of them are for kid-oriented food and drink, experts say. That adds up to a lot of girls and boys jonesing for a box of Cocoa Pebbles.”
The Baltimore Sun, editorial
Our Over-Screened Children
“For better or worse, U.S. kids spend a lot of time in front of a TV or computer screen, two hours daily for those 5 and younger. If the schools spent two hours a day on a single activity, there would be intense concern about its value.”
The Los Angeles Times, editorial
Who Monitors the Monitors?
“Parents concerned about their children’s TV consumption should first be concerned about how much access kids have to televisions. Kaiser Family Foundation research indicates that more than two-thirds of kids aged 8 to 18 have TVs in their bedrooms. A fourth of kids age 2 and under have TVs in their bedrooms. Then there are the TVs in the living room, family room, kitchen and elsewhere.”
Jeffrey M. McCall, Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Ind.)
Sleeping With the Television On
“Kids with televisions in their rooms watch more television that their parents would consider objectionable; read less; and sleep less. Also, kids who watch more television tend to be more violent, are more likely to be overweight, and tend to do less well in school. The advantage of having television in a child’s room? There aren’t any, unless you want to see less of your child and not hear what they are watching.”
Diana Zuckerman, The Augusta Chronicle
All Work and No Play
“Children are spending more time than ever before in educational settings, whether it’s preschool, year-round schools or after-school tutoring programs. Children today are every bit as busy as their parents. Is it so wrong to deny them a few moments of ostensibly mindless entertainment in between 'Hooked on Phonics’ tapes?
Nick Gillespie, The New York Times
Lessons In Common Sense
“Who will teach them? Not Hollywood, the tobacco companies or the video game companies. That lot of 'common sense education’ falls to the churches, schools and parents.”
The Deseret Morning News editorial
