OK. Let’s just get this out of the way so the minority of our Romney readers can gloat: Congratulations, your candidate kicked our candidate’s ass at the debate. Romney’s one mistep: Announcing that he’d cut funding to PBS: “I’m gonna stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m gonna stop other things,” Romney said. “I like PBS, I like Big Bird, I actually like you too, [Jim Lehrer].”
I’m not sure who that announcement appeals to, but the one thing that Mitt Romney’s team likely didn’t anticipate was the social media response to that remark. There have been countless Big-Bird inspired memes, fake Big Bird Twitter accounts, and even Big Bird himself weighed in on Twitter. Obviously, the remark is not going to offset Romney’s debate win, but I don’t think it’s helping matters, as the position has been ripe for mockery. Yesterday, however, LeVar Burton and PBS didn’t mock. They got ANGRY.
The former Reading Rainbow host told TMZ:
“I am personally outraged that any serious contender for the White House would target as part of his campaign the children of America in this fashion.”
“Educators across the country, as well as millions of children and adults know that the programming on PBS has been responsible for significant improvements in education, literacy, math, science and life skills for generations of our children.”
In a statement, PBS piled on:
“We are very disappointed that PBS became a political target in the Presidential debate last night,” PBS said in a statement. “Governor Romney does not understand the value the American people place on public broadcasting and the outstanding return on investment the system delivers to our nation.”
PBS CEO Paula Kerger also called out Romney for making PBS a topic of the debate in the first place.
“America’s biggest classroom” during a debate partly about education.
“The fact that we are the focus is just unbelievable to me,” Kerger said on CNN. “Whether you have books in your home or computer or not, almost everyone has a television set. The fact that we are in this debate— this isn’t about the budget. It has to be about politics.”
And, as Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted, there’s no actual value to the cuts other than political posturing:
It seems like a miscalculation to me. Sesame Street is a cherished institution, something that we all watched growing up and something that, as parents, many of us appreciate again. The reality is: The cut won’t really help reduce the deficit in any meaningful way, and the depriving PBS of the subsidy likely will not mean anything to Sesame Street, either (only a small fraction of PBS’s budget comes from that subsidy). Honestly, it just seems like a mean thing to do.
If Romney wanted to score some real political points, he should’ve mentioned that he also plans to cut funding to legal services, which is also in his budget. Now that actually would have a devestating effect on poverty lawyers (my own wife would lose her job, for one), but given the nation’s opinion toward lawyers in general, the announcement during the debate would’ve curried him more favor with voters, unless of course, social media made Franklin & Bash the face of the opposition.
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BUT WHAT ABOUT DOWNTON ABBEY?!
Isn’t that produced outside of the U.S.
If they cut PBS, would that mean they would have to hire those creepy Sesame Street knockoffs roaming around Central Park and touristy parts of Manhattan?
God I can’t wait until mid-November.
Romney really messed up. When you posture about the meaningless shit you’ll carve out of the federal budget, you’re supposed to point at the NEA and bring up some artsy-fartsy shit no one really cares about.
You come at Big Bird, though, you best not miss.
Perfect, but now I’m picturing Big Bird whistling Farmer in the Dell.
So yeah, perfect.
It’s fun to combine one of my favorite shows as a child with one of my favorite shows as an adult.
Holy shit, Zack, that is great.
Please feel free to share!
Voyage of Mimi…. NOOOOO!
RMoney was never going to be keen on educating poor people. Teach them to count and they’ll demand more money, teach them to read and they might actually pay attention to employment contracts.
The real winner here is Oscar the Grouch. No longer shall he be the poorest mutha fucka on Sesame Street.
We will save the economy by stopping the needless waste on PBS and end pollution by powering the entire country on clean coal. IT WILL BE PARADISE I TELL YOU! PARADISE!
Thing about the debates: Am I really to believe that there’s a mythical block of voters out there who are unengaged enough not to have decided on a candidate, but are watching the debates closely to help them choose one? Doubtful. Though the candidates sure made it easy on them by arguing about hypothetical changes to the tax code and which competing independent budget studies said whose plan was most deficit neutral. ALL OF THE BARFS.
@Vince, I read an article recently that said while some of the target audience are the weird undecided voters who fall under the category you stated. The real meat of the target, apparently is people who will change their minds, who might have picked but aren’t the strongest believers in their choice.
That block of voters does not exist. And if they did, they’d have to only live in swing states for these dumbass debates to matter in the slightest.
oh yea…well my candidate can kick your candidate’s ass
People get wound up over some of the most trivial shit
Hey it’s potatos potatoes.
Some people didn’t watch PBS, they instead had to read Ayn Rand while getting fucked in the ass with a statuette of Reagan.
*glances around, meekly raises hand*
Sounds like a party.
PBS can keep its “support” as soon as someone comes up with a coherent argument as to why Tavis Smiley and History Detectives are such special speech that they need government funding.
Because the alternative is that they get paid a shitload more.
More succinctly; the only way some media can exist is through government largess, meaning they are a self-indulgent and sanctimonious luxury whose purpose is to make us feel good.
D-bones, you just copied that from the PBS mission statement, didn’t you?
Oh but didn’t you hear? Romney won the debate. That means he’s practically won the election. It’s all over now.
*shoots self*
I’m voting for Kang
I’m voting for Kodos.
ABORTIONS FOR SOME, TINY AMERICAN FLAGS FOR EVERYONE!
Yeah, no network would think to pick up such a popular show as Seasame Street should it become available. PBS is the only possible station that will take a leap of faith and air such a popular and profitable show.
Now, sure, after it’s built up 40 years of Sesame Street Cred.
But PBS was the only station that would air something like when it started. All the networks were doing children’s shows like Bozo the Clown and Howdy Doody. It took PBS to provide a home for lower-rated shows like Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Same thing today. The networks will give you the Mattel Superheroes Chocobot Hour. PBS won’t. They give shows with an actual educational content. And as a parent, and as a taxpayer, I love that.
Good point, Otto — but with their appeal to sponsors, those quality shows could exist anywhere. Outside of the little kids’ stuff, PBS has as much to do with “the Public” as TLC does with Learning.
It might have been a while since you tuned into PBS, Old Fat.
They air “Downton Abbey” and the BBC version of “Sherlock,” both of which are incredibly popular programs. They air all the Ken Burns documentaries, like “The Civil War” and “Baseball” that are probably the best docs on TV. “Nova,” “NOW,” Bill Moyers, etc. There’s a ton of popular stuff on there.
But hey, if Republicans want to pursue this fantasy, please go ahead. Defunding PBS won’t do shit to the federal budget, but it’ll certainly hasten the inevitable demise of the Republican Party. Good luck with that.
“but with their appeal to sponsors, those quality shows could exist anywhere.”
Ya, but they would have to appeal to sponsors. The same funding system that brought us 2 Broke Girls will be running Sesame Street.
Sesame street would then become something that would have to turn a profit, lest it be cut…then NBC (or whoever) just owns the rights and denies them to everyone, regardless of if they do anything with the franchise or not. YAY PRIVATIZATION.
Right now sesame street doesn’t need to concern itself with ratings (though obviously they matter on some level.) This is what makes the program(s) good. We already know what commercial oriented Children’s programming looks like, and it’s NOTHING like sesame street. PBS programming is distinct and appreciated, (I believe) in part because it does not need to adhere to the other rules people who make content on TV, who need to concern themselves with how happy the advertisers are with their product placement, or making sure you hit the demographic they want you to, keeping viewers up etc, etc..
The sesame street we would get on, say, NBC, would be loaded with product placement, cut up with consumer advertising, it’d quickly enter the ranks of Vapid shit to sit your fat little kid in front of while you talk on the phone and/or play WoW all day.
Turning a public service into a privatized enterprise shifts the concerns from deliver services, to making money. The sole reason for a corporations existence. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!?
Bob Ross is on PBS…Romney’s argument is Invalid.
Sorry, Bob Ross is as dead as Obama’s credibility…but he still has better hair than Biden.
So if Obama’s cred is dead, Romney’s must be REALLY messed up.
Romney wrapped his credibility into the debt he loaded onto one of his Bain acquisitions and then pawned it back onto the federal government.
You know, business as usual for the almighty Job Creator.
I’m surprised PBS is given anything, considering how many telethons they seemingly have. Regardless, PBS is pretty good. I’d hate to see it go.
I’m not so sure that PBS funding should be “eliminated”…..a simpler solution would be to privatize it and have it managed by Fox News……
After all……we all seem to be in favor of government funding of political speech….
My semi-brilliant wife has an interesting theory, in essence, this: PBS makes a big deal out of how it doesn’t really *need* the small percentage of its budget that comes from taxpayers because of Viewers Like You. But they put up such a squawk whenever they’re asked to justify taxpayer funding that it makes you wonder how much of that pledge money ever finds its way to the operating budget. If the pledges are fulfilled, PBS still has to buy the crappy CD’s and pay the phone bank (yeah, right, those are “local volunteers”) and all that.
The endless telethons aren’t just fundraising, after all — they’re also hours of programming that would otherwise have to be paid for at a much higher cost-per-hour.
So, if what PBS says is true about not needing taxpayer funding to exist, maybe they should prove it or GTFO. Sesame Street alone is a billion-dollar product, so maybe it’s true.
[www.pbs.org]
“Numerous studies — including one requested by Congress earlier this year — have stated categorically that while the federal investment in public broadcasting is relatively modest, the absence of this critical seed money would cripple the system and bring its services to an end. ”
I’m sorry, please point out at one point were they pretending the money wasn’t important?
Maybe you should read the things you are commenting on that’s conveniently linked in the article for you.
Maybe then you wouldn’t sound like some crackpot making unfounded assertions because ‘his wife said so.’
Romney probably heard about Oscar the Grouch, or the “Poorest Mothafucka in Sesame Street according to Cultural Theorist David Chappelle, and figured he represented 47% of Sesame Street’s population, as he doesn’t pay any income taxes like that rich asshole Elmo does.
What happens if PBS loses funding? Look at The Learning Channel. Look at The History Channel.
It’s Honey Boo Boo, all the way down.
So true. If TLC and the history channel have taught us anything, It’s that money (and in turn ratings) are their primary concern. It’s horrific how The History channels name carries certain implications but the kind of shit we find on that channel is the same thing we see on Syfy.