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Don't believe the PBS PR spin. PBS' decision to remove Mister Rogers' Neighborhood from its weekday affiliate feed and relegate it to one weekend airing is de facto cancellation of the show. Many PBS stations don't have the financial, staffing or technical resources to accommodate PBS' one-time-only batch-transmission of an entire season of the show at once; many others will use this withdrawal of national support as an opportunity to replace the show. One paltry airing on the weekends, when most kids aren't even watching, is hardly sufficient for a show that not only built and sustained PBS for 40-plus years, but helped (and continues to help) generations of children grow up to be happier, smarter, more emotionally and socially capable people. There is nothing on television like Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Its primary themes are kindness, tolerance, acceptance. It's not there to sell products or create brand identity among young consumers. It provides kids with a safe space and a gentle and understanding presence when there is so often not one in their day to day lives. I believe this decision is about marketing--PBS and its "partners" make a tremendous amount of money off the staggering amount of merchandise sold from Teletubbies, Thomas the Tank Engine and Elmo and its many other "properties", while Rogers was always vigorously opposed to exploiting kids for financial gain. His goal was to provide vital social and emotional education to kids, to give them a calm, nurturing, understanding adult figure and a safe space from the very forces of exploitation and manipulation that is now so common in children's programming on PBS and elsewhere. One suspects the PBS Kids programming that replaces Mister Rogers on the national feed will have a healthy merchandising component. Saying "viewership was down" once again betrays the nature of this decision. PBS was never conceived or intended as a for-profit venture, and its mission is to provide quality educational and public-service programming regardless of ratings. Pushing Mister Rogers' content onto the web or digital channels is not an alternative for millions of children who don't have access to those services--in other words, those geographically or educationally isolated, working poor or poverty-stricken families PBS was originally designed to serve. I appreciate the difficult realities of today's media, but Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is at the core of PBS' mission. Fred Rogers was instrumental in the creation and survival of PBS (witness his heroic 1969 testimony before Rep. Pastore), and he deserves better. I've written to PBS expressing these concerns, but I've also taken it one step further: I've contacted my Senators and Representatives, the ones who vote on PBS and CPB appropriations, and I've let them know I won't support any CPB funding without a firm commitment from PBS to airing Mister Rogers' Neighborhood five days a week. His show is a force for good that our kids need now more than ever. Contact your elected officials and let them know.