Big Bird tries to fly above Romney fray
A day after the verse exploded in reaction to Mitt Romney's vow to fire Big Bird by cutting federal funding to PBS, Sesame Street declined to enter the political fray, turning down requests from TV talk shows for an appearance by the giant yellow avian.
But others voiced support on social media and elsewhere, reigniting a debate about taxpayer funding of public broadcasting. And reaction reached down to the show's pintsized viewers: 8yearold Cecelia Crawford of Alabama sent a letter to the Romney campaign, obtained by the Huffington Post, that urged it to protect "my favorite show on earth."
"People are certainly talking about it," says PBS spokeswoman Anne Bentley. "Moms, parents, teachers and educators have been vocal in their support today."
It's not the first time Republican candidates and congressmen have targeted federal appropriations, totaling $445 million this year, to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; it's a frequent target for budgetminded lawmakers.
But Romney's offhand remarks in a discussion about the deficit radiated as he promised that, if elected, he'd cut funding. "I like PBS . I love Big Bird," he said, "but I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for."
Technically, the funding does not go directly to PBS or NPR; instead, it's sent to NPR outlets and PBS' 179 local stations around the country to help pay member fees in exchange for the right to air their programming.
"What it would really affect is our stations' ability to stay on the air," Bentley says. Such grants represent an average of 15% of stations' operating budgets, and up to 50% for some in rural areas. "They're really in jeopardy of going dark if they don't receive funding."
But PBS provides the home for Sesame Street, a muchpraised preschool program that began airing in 1969 and is among its toprated kids shows. It's produced and funded by Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit organization, and the perception that taxpayer dollars are going to a group that sells untold numbers of Tickle Me Elmo dolls is "misleading," says executive VP Sherrie Westin. The show receives no direct federal funding.
"We raise the vast majority of our funding from licensing revenues, corporate sponsorships and philanthropic donations," Westin says. Even so, "PBS is our longtime distribution partner, and without them we couldn't reach all children in the country with educational, commercialfree programming."
Big Bird was not made available for comment. But in a message Thursday, BB claimed to be unaware of the fuss: "My bed time is usually 7:45, but I was really tired yesterday and fell asleep at 7! Did I miss anything last night?"