For 43 years Big Bird has been the symbol of Sesame Street, the beloved childrens show featured on PBS that really made PBS America’s classroom. Many a child learned his or her colors, letters, and how to count from friends like Cookie Monster, the Count, Oscar the Grouch, Elmo and Big Bird. These colorful characters also taught some life lessons like not picking on the kid who wore classes and how to go get a police man or woman if you were in trouble. Sesame Street founds itself on the chopping blog during last night’s debates, in front of 50 million Americans.
Once again the PBS has been targeted by conservatives and is being plucked and defeathered for the old defunding stew pot in the sky. In fact, Mitt Romney ironically told the moderator, Jim Lehrer, a long time PBS anchor, that he would defund PBS during the debate.
NRP reported Mitt Romney saying:
“I’m sorry, Jim, I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS,” Romney said. “I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird. Actually like you, too. But I’m not going to — I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for. That’s number one.”
The tweets to save Big Bird soared with that remark. A little bit about the reaction in PBS land–
From Politico:
The government funds the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private, nonprofit corporation that distributes the subsidy to local PBS stations. In the 2012 fiscal year, CPB was given $444 .1 million — about 0.012 percent of the entire federal budget, as astrophysicist and radio host Neil deGrasse Tyson accurately tweeted Thursday. By law, CPB must give around 72 percent of its appropriation directly to stations, with lesser amounts going to PBS and other public TV and radio broadcasters. In the 2011 fiscal year, for example, PBS received just $22.3 million of CPB’s total $429 million appropriation, according to the most current data available.
CPB estimates that for about $1.35 per American per year, “PBS stations return six times that amount in programming and services.”
PBS CEO Paula Kerger defended her network earlier Thursday, saying it was “stunning” that Romney said he wanted to slash “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.”
Cuts could prompt some stations, especially in rural areas, to go dark, she said.
$1.35 hardly seems like a huge amount to pay for quality programming that reaches most American families. Not every family has access to quality programming other than through PBS. Almost every house in America has some form of TV. Not every house has a computer, newspaper, magazines or cable for that TV. Not every house has a satellite dish. That’s where public television comes in and has reached hundreds of homes, especially in rural America.
According to Wikipedia:
Unlike its radio counterpart, National Public Radio, PBS has no central program production arm or news department. All of the programming carried by PBS, whether news, documentary, or entertainment, is created by (or in most cases produced under contract with) other parties, such as individual member stations. WGBH in Boston is one of the largest producers of educational television programming, including American Experience, Masterpiece Theater, Nova, Antiques Roadshow and Frontline, as well as many other children’s and lifestyle shows.
Many of our favorite shows like Downton Abbey come to us via PBS as to all those wonderful Jane Austen programs. The neat thing is, everyone gets these channels, even if you don’t have cable. Imagine not being able to see Ken Burn’s National Parks or Civil War, or any of his great productions.
PBS really is an American gem and part of our culture system. Shouldn’t all Americans be able to enjoy this quality programming? I feel like Mitt Romney suggested cutting out both the heart and soul of the United States, just to save less than 2 dollars an American. Find something else.
Mitt, bring all your off shore accounts back and help us keep PBS in tact. A War on Big Bird is just going after low hanging fruit.
What is your favorite PBS show? Do you consider it worth while? My list is long and every changing but I would demand on keeping PBS .
Saw this on CNN yesterday. Thought to myself how low CNN has sunk since their heydays. Kind of a shame.
Not quite as silly as the “war on women”…..but close!
“I feel like Mitt Romney suggested cutting out both the heart and soul of the United States, just to save less than 2 dollars an American. Find something else.”
What should that something else be? Everything is sacred to somebody.
Cut out some fat cat general’s perks. Cut out free congressional parking for life.
PBS is some sort of ultra conservative witch hunt and has been for decades. I have never figured out why. It takes the tiniest of bites out of the budget and probably reaches more people than most federal contributions do. Anything on TV reaches more people than a museum.
Because, for years, the leftist editorial base of NPR and PBS have been annoying. Conservatives are tired of funding those people.
Besides, Sesame Street makes a profit on its merchandising. Use that profit to make the show.
Sesame Street is way to agenda-driven anymore. It’s not just about ABC’s and numbers like it used to be, with a little bit of gentle social engineering thrown in. Now it’s in your face. I’m sure there are plenty of advocacy groups who would be happy to pick up the slack to make sure their messages are getting across to our four-year-olds.
Let’s explore social engineering. Do you mean like saying please/thank you and getting along with people?
That has always been there. Am I missing something or has Sesame Street gone radical and I have missed it?
I sort of stopped listening to that stuff when someone told me about 5 years ago that Sponge Bob was part of the radical homosexual agenda. The lady was deadly serious.
I usually turn up my nose at the Guardian. However I thought this was an interesting contrast:
I never though Sesame Street would be on the conservative hitlist. Sheesh, those guys hate everything.
As a father of two that watches Sesame Street *everyday* I can say a few things.
The new episodes have a liberal bias. Even my left leaning wife thinks so.
The old episodes which I had to buy are less so and provide that gentle teaching without an underlying notion of liberalism thrown in.
I have spent a little under $200 on Sesame Street products. Those DVDs and toys aren’t cheap.
It’s still up to the parent to teach things. For example sharing. The show wants kids to share everything. That is not correct. If Mia is playing with a toy than Enrique has no right to play with that toy unless he asks for permission from her. So while the concept is OK I need to temper what they see on TV with how I think they ought to be raised.
I think PBS, like Planned Parenthood, can exist in the free market independent of my taxpayer dollars because as a parent I still see value (in the old episodes). So I’ll continue to buy the products but I do so of my own free will
As a 3 year old told my wife about the new episodes – what is this crap?!
Sesame Street teaches sharing. That is a Christian value, not a liberal value. Sesame has always taught sharing. So has every pre school in America.
If you are going to get along in society, you need to share.
Give more examples of liberal bias. I reject that sharing is a liberal concept.
I would suggest that parents who don’t want their kids to learn about sharing not turn on Sesame Street for their kids.
Oh good lord! Now even effing big bird and ernie are on the dreaded conservative “watch list” for socialism is sounds like.
Ah yes, now we have planned parenthood thrown in. I think my head is going to explode. This just in people, for the last time, Planned Parenthood provides inexpensive health care to poor women. If you defund them, WHERE are women getting their well woman check ups? Hello? Is anyone thinking rationally?
I have been through a lot of kids and grandchildren with Sesame Street, (I confess to liking Backyardigans better nowadays)and I have never seen a liberal bias. What is a liberal bias?
I remember when Buffy St. Marie was one of the hosts. I am sure that was cultural diversity.
The difference I see in today’s show is that it is noisier and has much more stimulation.
The older shows used to be quieter and had a more calming effect.
I don’t think that has to do with liberal or conservative.
@Elena
No. I am glad you haven’t given up though. It just makes me too angry to even try.
Ever see a piranha eat? It takes the tiniest of bites.
Ever seen a general’s perks? They take huge ones.
PBS makes quality programming available for everyone. 15% comes from the feds. Its just another sound bite.
Its just part of a bigger war. Its also part of our national soul, sort of like national parks. Want to sell those off too to private enterprise?
Apparently the actor who played Jordie on Star Trek Next Generation, is very upset over Romney’s comment. For some time, he was on Rainbow Reading Room, a program I loved watching with Eli. For the first 5 years of Eli’s life, we ONLY watched WETA programs.
Moon, have you seen this article?
Who are the genius’s in the republican party that believe making it HARDER for women to gain access to quality healthcare will reduce abortion or how about this one, CANCER treatment. I was very lucky to have had pre cervical cancer found early because of planned parenthood!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/05/study-free-birth-control-abortion-rate_n_1942621.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
The problem is, only you and this Star Trek guy care.
@Elena
Can’t wait to hear everything you have to share about genius’s.
The occasional spelling glitch is expected, but when you’re insinuating that someone other than yourself is not-too-bright, you should probably spell that piece right. Otherwise, it’s really funny.
Slow, I knew it was wrong, but just didnt’ feel like fixing it, I figure if you were smart enough you would know the intention.
Do you really want want to be want to be the spell check police? Is that meaningful to you because you are unable or unwilling to argue your point of view?
I believe many people care about quality programming. Programming that does not inundate you with commercials selling crap to your kids.
As far as leftists annoying conservatives, tough crap. Get over it. I am tired of paying for lots of things also.
As for Sesame Street, it can survive on its own. However, other programming isn’t as popular as Sesame Street. the entire concept of public television is so all people get to enjoy quality programming regardless of where they live or their incomes. Its just one of those egalitarian things.
Sesame Street played a tremendous part in early learning readiness. Did it solve all educational woes? Of course not but it bridged a gap.
Name me some leftist ideas from PBS. PBS, unlike NPR isn’t a centralized organization. Sharing, equal access, getting along with our neighbors, so far seem to be the chief offending liberal ideas.
@Elena
Away from all those cereal and toy ads? How can the boy grow up to be normal?
Perhaps because they don’t want to have to live in a world with a bunch of ignorant AH’s. Public television is the heart and soul of American programming. You enjoyed programs like the Into the West Speilburg program. We discussed it. Would you rather have shows like that broken up with commericals on first run? How about all the Ken Burns stuff commercialized?
No thank you. Sesame Street is just emblematic of the entire concept of Public Television.
You have just invited me to be part of your grammar police patrol. I accept with pleasure. Make no mistakes or you to go the AH chair on the blog.
You are just riding too high in the stirrups as a guest.
Good manners are expected, even from you, slow poke.
@Elena
He’s marked. Now he has to be perfect.
@Elena
Truthfully, I am tired of the Planned Parenthood “debate” where dumb asses whine about how much medicaid, WIC, child care, SNAP and other social prgrams cost and then they propose to cut off Planned Parenthood. Someone is getting led around by the nose by religious zealots.
Seriously, sex is here to stay, regardless of who tries to pray it away and sex produces pregnancy. It is perfectly obvious that pregnancy prevention is what we should be shooting for. Hell even Richard Nixon got that plan when title X was ushered in over 40 years ago.
I am just tired of igorance and attempted control over others. I am tired of reproduction being politicized. I am just going to start pointing and laughing. I have tried to be civil and well mannered to long. It has gotten me no where. The zealots and flat earthers are still trying to gain control Give it up!
Here are a few facts.
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_contraceptive_serv.html
“Sesame Street teaches sharing. That is a Christian value, not a liberal value.”
If that’s true don’t you have a separation of Church and State issue??
If they are that popular – they are – they can survive without taxpayer assistance. They can continue to pay their CEO 1m/year without any objection from me.
Just commenting that sharing is a Christian value. It is also a Jewish value, a muslim value,a Hindu value…..
I wasn’t institutionalizing “sharing.” Sharing is one of those things that we value as a society regardless of where it comes from. It isn’t liberal.
Sesame Street can make it on its own. Once again, it is emblematic of the entire PBS experience. Not everything can make it on its own. Kens burns is a millionaire many times over. That isn’t the point. How do his films become accessible to the public?
Every time I have this discussion, I think of Nevada. Nevada is where people should go live if they want to go primitive, without the niceties of life. You can put pink flamingoes in your yard if you want and use a satellite daisy as your picnic table in most areas.
Again, decent, commercial free programming is sort of the soul of the country, like the Smithsonian and the National Parks.
“I am just tired of igorance and attempted control over others.”
I am too but yet you still continue to support Obama and his Big Government.
That really isn’t the kind of control that I find as offensive. But you knew that.
But you are free to have health care costs continue to skyrocket and the injured pay the costs of the inunsured, like what happens now if you want.
There really is no free lunch.
Having trouble reading? I said “when you are making the point that someone else is stupid”, not all the time. Don’t like what I say? Ban me. [yawn]
Actually, now that I think on it….just imagine! You could ban everybody who says something you don’t like until it’s just you, Elena, and Starry squawking at each other……edifying each other! Wouldn’t that be dreamy?!
The fact that you are still here is living proof that I tolerate babbling from lots of folks.
@Moon-howler
“That really isn’t the kind of control that I find as offensive. But you knew that.”
Yes that’s why I brought it up. It’s not compromise – its what you think is right. It’s sort I like saying slavery is ok as long as you like the master.
“There really is no free lunch.”
I really wish you would believe that.
“Just commenting that sharing is a Christian value. It is also a Jewish value, a muslim value,a Hindu value…..”
Many religions also promote that women are subservient to men. Care to give that view taxpayer monies, too. Have that taught to impressionable children?
One of the reasons that NPR and PBS are so annoying to right-wing corporatists is that they are free from corporate extremist influence and don’t have to toe the “corporate line” like the hacks on Fox and the Washington Times and to some extent even the Wash. Post and CBS, ABC and NBC. There’s an amazing lack of independent reporting anymore. The savings on NPR and PBS would be equivalent to you or I saving about a penny a year. Real budget buster…
I do love NPR’s Delicious Dish with Alec Baldwin and his Schweddy Balls….do you think Romney would get rid of that as well??? Wink, Wink.
Oh probably. If its fun, get rid of it.
Just so Downton Abbey comes back on schedule in January….reason enough for me to vote against Romney to ensure it happens!!!!!
well, if the funding for PBS is cut, do not worry – Big Bird and Sesame Street are so successful, that it will go on – as will This Old House and others. It is shows like the Antiques Road Show (enjoyed by some here) that will not get outside funding. Also, PBS stations in largely rural areas will not get enough funding to survive. Not all areas of the US are affluent enough to afford pay TV, and rely on stations such as PBS to provide News, Entertainment and Current Events.
There are many other areas of the budget that can get cut (with no significant impact) before we have to cut this minimal amount.
Pat, you are correct. Many people here are too suburbanized, too northern Virginia, too middle class.
Areas in the midwest and the west literally go 100s of miles between what we would call real towns. Those are the people who can’t afford that satellite dish who will suffer. Distance is very deceptive the further west you go. A big hint might be to check out how many real airports exist and the number of interstates. Both of those are density indicators. High paying jobs usually go hand in hand with interstates and airports.