Politics

Big Bird and the presidential debate

ROMNEY: Jim, I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. 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.

  1. Reaction to Romney's statement were mostly lighthearted but Kristin Fournier-Sova posted on Facebook, "It really troubles me that all some people got out of the debate last night is that Romney wants to "kill Big Bird"!! He didn't say he would get rid of PBS he said the government shouldn't have to fund it! We are TRILLIONS of dollars in debt people!!!
  2. PBS funding amounts to 0.038% of the federal budget, if you were wondering.
  3. *The above figure has not been verified by CNN
  4. CNNPressroom posted this on their blog: Before Mitt Romney said he was going to stop the subsidy to PBS, even though he likes Big Bird, at the first presidential debate, Sherrie Westin, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Sesame Workshop, told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien that cuts to public broadcasting will not ‘kill Big Bird.’

    Westin says, “Sesame Workshop receives very, very little funding from PBS. So, we are able to raise our funding through philanthropic, through our licensed product, which goes back into the educational programming, through corporate underwriting and sponsorship. So quite frankly, you can debate whether or not there should be funding of public broadcasting. But when they always try to tout out Big Bird, and say we’re going to kill Big Bird – that is actually misleading, because Sesame Street will be here.”

  5. I guess I'll have to start doing this again... Poor Big Bird. #BigBird2012 http://pic.twitter.com/hswaTcZ8
  6. Statistics: Romney saying he would not fund PBS can cost him the Presidency. What no Sesame Street - no Elmo, no Big Bird, no Cookie Monster, no Snuffy; that is the education tool for babies and people are taking it seriously because now they feel he doesn't care about early childhood education. #BigBirdForPresident lol!
  7. I think Big Bird would be okay... It's Snuffy I'm worried about. He wouldn't last 2 seconds on the street. #SaveBigBird
  8. Under Mitt #Romney, Sesame Street will become an extension of Wall Street. #BigBird #Debate2012
  9. Obama killed bin Laden. Romney would put a hit on Big Bird. #legacies
  10. I'm still watching the debate but the only thing I'm gonna remember from this is Mitt Romney's feelings for Big Bird.

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