“This is a betrayal of parents and children across the country,” said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert. “PBS has forgotten its mission, and is selling our children to the highest bidder. PBS President Paula Kerger should be fired immediately.”
“PBS is supposed to be a non-commercial alternative, but it is quickly becoming a copy of the other commercial networks,” Ruskin said. “Targeting children with ads online is just the latest in a long line of insults to American families that began in 1998 with selling national advertisements on Sesame Street.”
“There should not be ads on PBS anywhere, not on its programming, and not on its website,” Ruskin said. “It’s long past time for Congress to step in and require PBS to stick to its non-commercial mission.”
For background about the commercialization of PBS, see Commercial Alert’s web page at: http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/pbs.
Commercial Alert’s mission is to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy. For more information, see our website at: http://www.commercialalert.org.
For More Information Contact: Gary Ruskin (503) 235-8012