Big Bird Wants Out of Campaign Ad By Peter Nicholas
The ad starring Big Bird, above.
Big Bird, it seems, isn’t thrilled about his cameo in the presidential race.
The folks at Sesame Street are asking the Obama campaign to pull down a TV ad released Tuesday that mocks Mitt Romney for vowing to yank the subsidy to PBS.
At the presidential debate in Denver last week, Mr. Romney said he would end the subsidy in view of the nation’s fiscal troubles.
“I love Big Bird,” the Republican challenger said “… But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for.”
Up went an ad by team Obama called “Big Bird’’ that suggests Mr. Romney is targeting children’s programming rather than legitimate threats to people’s economic interests.
The ad shows images of Bernie Madoff and others implicated in various financial and corporate scandals. A narrator then intones: “And the evil genius who towered over them?”
A silhouette of Big Bird flashes on screen.
“Mitt Romney knows it’s not Wall Street you have to worry about, it’s Sesame Street,” the narrator said.
The ad is airing on national cable and broadcast TV, in time slots devoted to comedy shows, the Obama campaign said.
Sesame Street isn’t amused. Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organization that produces and owns the show, issued a statement Tuesday saying “we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down.”...........................>>>>.....................>>>>........................http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/10/09/big-bird-wants-out-of-campaign-ad/
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
How many of our children learned letters from Bert and Ernie before they ever went to preschool? How many could count because of The Count? How many of our new scientists were introduced to their future profession by Bill Nye? And how many of you discovered a love of books through "Reading Rainbow"? PBS offers kids television shows that are free -- and especially free of hard-sell commercials and corporate points of view. PBS educates our children.
Studies show that PBS has been responsible for improvements in early, elementary, middle and even high school education. PBS represents 0.00012% of our nation's budget. And while this resource benefits kids across all economic circumstances, it has even greater impact on the disadvantaged. Yet it has been made a political issue.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
The panic and desperation is becoming apparent from Obama if 'Big Bird' is the main campaign issue.
Right Boxy?
"Approval ratings go up and down for various reasons... An example is the high post 911 support for GWB even though he could be said to be responsible for the event." --- Box A Rox '9/11 Truther'
Melania is a bimbo... she is there to look at, not to listen to. --- Box A Rox and his 'War on Women'
Public Broadcasting Should Go Private If these outfits can afford to pay lavish salaries to their heads, they don't need taxpayer help.
When presidents of government-funded broadcasting are making more than the president of the United States, it's time to get the government out of public broadcasting.
While executives at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) are raking in massive salaries, the organizations are participating in an aggressive lobbying effort to prevent Congress from saving hundreds of millions of dollars each year by cutting their subsidies. The so-called commercial free public airwaves have been filled with pleas for taxpayer cash. The Association of Public Television Stations has hired lobbyists to fight the cuts. Hundreds of taxpayer-supported TV, radio and Web outlets have partnered with an advocacy campaign to facilitate emails and phone calls to Capitol Hill for the purpose of telling members of Congress, "Public broadcasting funding is too important to eliminate!"
PBS President Paula Kerger even recorded a personal television appeal that told viewers exactly how to contact members of Congress in order to "let your representative know how you feel about the elimination of funding for public broadcasting." But if PBS can pay Ms. Kerger $632,233 in annual compensation—as reported on the 990 tax forms all nonprofits are required to file—surely it can operate without tax dollars.
The executives at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which distributes the taxpayer money allocated for public broadcasting to other stations, are also generously compensated. According to CPB's 2009 tax forms, President and CEO Patricia de Stacy Harrison received $298,884 in reportable compensation and another $70,630 in other compensation from the organization and related organizations that year. That's practically a pittance compared to Kevin Klose, president emeritus of NPR, who received more than $1.2 million in compensation, according to the tax forms the nonprofit filed in 2009.
Today's media landscape is a thriving one with few barriers to entry and many competitors, unlike when CPB was created in 1967. In 2011, Americans have thousands of news, entertainment and educational programs to choose from that are available on countless television, radio and Web outlets.
Despite how accessible media has become to Americans over the years, funding for CPB has grown considerably. In 2001, the federal government appropriated $340 million for CPB. Last year it got $420 million. As Congress considers ways to close the $1.6 trillion deficit, cutting funding for the CPB has even been proposed by President Obama's bipartisan deficit reduction commission. Instead, Mr. Obama wants to increase CPB's funding to $451 million in his latest budget.
Meanwhile, highly successful, brand-name public programs like Sesame Street make millions on their own. "Sesame Street," for example, made more than $211 million from toy and consumer product sales from 2003-2006. Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary Knell received $956,513 in compensation in 2008. With earnings like that, Big Bird doesn't need the taxpayers to help him compete against the Nickleodeon cable channel's Dora the Explorer.
The panic and desperation is becoming apparent from Obama if 'Big Bird' is the main campaign issue.
Right Boxy?
Obama didn't bring Big Bird into this campaign... Romney did. And if you look at educating our kids as important, PBS is a fantastic value.
Romney wants to kill Big Bird to feed the 1%. Typical.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Actually, Big Bird IS part of the 1% ---- The Children's Television Workshop earns about $15 to 17 million dollars a year just in licensing and merchandise sales.
I remember the big debate in the 1990 when Newt Gingrinch wanted to cut funding to PBS or at least require that production companies that benefited from being on the PBS Network return to PBS some of the money earned from licensing and merchandise sales. Many of the shows on PBS offer tie-in products (books, tapes, etc.) and bring in a lot of money -- and because many of these production companies are "not-for-profits" they do not pay tax and are not obligated to give any money to PBS ... even though it was PBS who spent money to get them on the air (as an example - PBS gave CTW $ 8 million in the late 1960's to get it up and rolling).
Many celebrity cooks, do-it-your-selfers (ex. Bob Vila) and others have gotten their start on PBS then moved on and cashed in with the commercial networks or other media platforms ... and basically told PBS to "pound sand". From what I have read over the years - very few of these celebrities made famous by PBS have actually bothered to give back to PBS over the years. Two noticeable exceptions have been Julia Child and Jacques Pepin.
Bottomline - I personally support public television and public radio because I believe they area value to our nation and to our community. In theory, I am not opposed to some modest percentage of government support for public radio and public television -- however I do believe that when times require "belt-tightening" PBS and NPR should "share in the pain" along with every other government entity.
Oh -- and I think it is incredibility stupid and unpresidential for Obama to be using Big Bird in his commercials. It just shows how desperate Obama has become to cling to power.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Obama didn't bring Big Bird into this campaign... Romney did. And if you look at educating our kids as important, PBS is a fantastic value.
Romney wants to kill Big Bird to feed the 1%. Typical.
C'mon, Box. That's like saying Dukakis brought Willie Horton into his campaign. Romney brought up a well known PBS character during the debate, and Obama produced TV ads with it. PBS was a great value for educating kids...15 years ago...There are plenty of free choices today that do as good or better. PBS has been using corporate sponsorship for years, they'll just need to use more of it.
"Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock out the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious." - Author Unknown
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
With Thanksgiving Day just a little more than a month away, I believe there is a way to resolve the "Big Bird problem" and provide plenty of food for the homeless.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
On a serious note --- Sesame Street makes so much money every year from all of the licensed merchandise sales that it doesn't really need a government subsidy to continue its programming.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
According to FoxNews.com , U.S. oil companies receive $4 billion in tax subsidies last year. In 2012 PBS & NPR got a total of $445 million in taxpayer support.
$4,000,000,000 for Big Oil. $ 445,000,000 for Big Bird.
$4 billion for this:
$445 million for this:
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
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