Mitt Romney's Big Bird Attack Threatens Thousands Of U.S. Jobs

[SheHateMe]

Since Big Bird debuted on television in 1969, the 8-foot tall canary has helped sell toys, stuffed animals, comic books, halloween costumes, t-shirts and USB drives.

In short, Big Bird is a job creator. Hear him squawk!

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces the show "Sesame Street," made $46.9 million in revenue from licensing Big Bird, Elmo, the Cookie Monster and other characters in 2011, according to financial statements. This money helped pay the salaries of 1,320 employees.

The former Massachusetts governor cited job creation as his reason for wanting to cut programs like the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which airs "Sesame Street" in the United States. Slashing certain programs would help pay for tax breaks and stimulate hiring, he said

Though Sesame Workshop is a separate organization from PBS with its own revenue streams, it depends on the channel to distribute its programming for free to all families, including those who can't afford cable or satellites, said Sherrie Westin, Sesame Workshop's executive vice president, in an interview.

"[PBS] is especially important in a time when 33 percent of students arrive at kindergarten without basic skills," said Westin. "We've been a partner of PBS for 43 years and highly value their ability to connect Big Bird and friends with America's preschoolers."

Big Bird looks so sad :/

Also, LOL What episode was this teaching kids about homeless people?

 

[Juddog]

I love how Romney claims he will add all these jobs, then talks about slashing jobs.

 

[Todd33]

Well if a nation of kids learns to count (Ah Ah Ah One Two!) then they will never vote for a Romney like person with fuzzy math where you can slash revenue and increase spending to reduce the deficit.

 

[PJABBER]

Seriously, if Sesame Street wants to keep producing programming all they have to do is pick up more sponsors and switch networks to FOX.

:awe:

It is time to slash a lot of nice to have but unessential programs. ALL of the cuts will affect someone who will then have a sob story.

So, for all of the sob stories to come, here is your personal boo hoo bumper sticker -

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Seriously, if Sesame Street wants to keep producing programming all they have to do is pick up more sponsors and switch networks to FOX.

:awe:

It is time to slash a lot of nice to have but unessential programs. ALL of the cuts will affect someone who will then have a sob story.

So, for all of the sob stories to come, here is your personal boo hoo bumper sticker -

That's about it. Any network will pick then up in a heartbeat. The question will be what happens tithe quality.

That says nothing to the rest of the programming and all the jobs at PBS affiliates.

 

[SheHateMe]

Right...but PBS was the first thing to cut in Mitt's mind?

PBS...

 

[thraashman]

Well the problem is things like Sesame Street on PBS educate children. Children who get educated at an early age tend to continue their education at a later age. Time and again studies have shown that those who are educated and intelligent, don't vote Republican. So Mitt is just aiming to create Republican voters as early as possible by keeping as much of the populace as ignorant as possible.

 

[SheHateMe]

Well the problem is things like Sesame Street on PBS educate children. Children who get educated at an early age tend to continue their education at a later age. Time and again studies have shown that those who are educated and intelligent, don't vote Republican. So Mitt is just aiming to create Republican voters as early as possible by keeping as much of the populace as ignorant as possible.

How old is Mitt? Sesame Street has been on the air for 43 years, I wonder if he's ever watched it as a child.

 

[Throckmorton]

Overall 1/7th of PBS funding comes from the federal government, but for rural stations the proportion is more like 1/2. Those rural stations would have to shut down if federal money gets cut off.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Well the problem is things like Sesame Street on PBS educate children. Children who get educated at an early age tend to continue their education at a later age. Time and again studies have shown that those who are educated and intelligent, don't vote Republican. So Mitt is just aiming to create Republican voters as early as possible by keeping as much of the populace as ignorant as possible.

Studies have shown that the college age people are easily brainwashed by the liberal instructors.

Once into the real world and getting responsibilities; they realize that the liberal dream is another matra for screw those above you.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Overall 1/7th of PBS funding comes from the federal government, but for rural stations the proportion is more like 1/2. Those rural stations would have to shut down if federal money gets cut off.

Or they start shaking the bushes for sponsors.

Maybe the Dem party can send a few million that way instead of big city media outlets.

But wait, many of those rural areas are red; Dems can not help people in those states.

 

[Slick5150]

Studies have shown that the college age people are easily brainwashed by the liberal instructors.

Once into the real world and getting responsibilities; they realize that the liberal dream is another matra for screw those above you.

Please post links to these "studies"

K thanks.

 

[surfsatwerk]

Because it's the PBS money dragging this country down.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Please post links to these "studies"

K thanks.

Run any poll.
Students are more liberal.
Some because of the faculty brainwashing.

AT is a perfect example.

 

[zinfamous]

Seriously, if Sesame Street wants to keep producing programming all they have to do is pick up more sponsors and switch networks to FOX.

:awe:

It is time to slash a lot of nice to have but unessential programs. ALL of the cuts will affect someone who will then have a sob story.

So, for all of the sob stories to come, here is your personal boo hoo bumper sticker -

ignorance: they name is PJabber.


pray-tell: what does cutting 0.000035% of the budget have to do with being thrifty?

lol--you guys actually think a guy like Romney is going to cut funding to PBS and NPR? the odd thing about your candidate, this year, is that Romney is actually smart--he very well knows the value of these services, and is only parroting such nonsense to appease the intellectual bottom feeders that make up your base.

 

[lotus503]

ignorance: they name is PJabber.


pray-tell: what does cutting 0.000035% of the budget have to do with being thrifty?

lol--you guys actually think a guy like Romney is going to cut funding to PBS and NPR? the odd thing about your candidate, this year, is that Romney is actually smart--he very well knows the value of these services, and is only parroting such nonsense to appease the intellectual bottom feeders that make up your base.

Exactly the group that will be most disappointed with a Romney presidency is the GOP base.

 

[zinfamous]

Studies have shown that the college age people are easily brainwashed by the liberal instructors.

Once into the real world and getting responsibilities; they realize that the liberal dream is another matra for screw those above you.

link.

also, "having liberal viewpoint" does not infer "brainwashing" by "liberal instructor."

I daresay that your injected assumptions into whatever data you read would likely make your trusted studies suspicious, but I am curious, nonetheless.

don't tell me to look it up--you make a claim, you back it up.

simple.

 

[zinfamous]

Exactly the group that will be most disappointed with a Romney presidency is the GOP base.

well, it's no secret that none of them like him.

He's just the most un-muslim guy out there right now.

 

[BoberFett]

pray-tell: what does cutting 0.000035% of the budget have to do with being thrifty?

lol--you guys actually think a guy like Romney is going to cut funding to PBS and NPR? the odd thing about your candidate, this year, is that Romney is actually smart--he very well knows the value of these services, and is only parroting such nonsense to appease the intellectual bottom feeders that make up your base.

Sadly that's true. He's pandering. Since when do Republicans actually cut anything? And when it comes time to cut, they target the same things that Democrats do. Easy targets that don't change anything. Nobody touches the spending that actually means something. Defense, Mediare, SS, they're sacred cows and nobody says a thing about cutting them once the elections are over.

 

[Throckmorton]

Or they start shaking the bushes for sponsors.

Maybe the Dem party can send a few million that way instead of big city media outlets.

But wait, many of those rural areas are red; Dems can not help people in those states.

You want the Democratic party to fund educational TV? Are you being serious?

 

[Fern]

Mitt Romney's Big Bird Attack Threatens Thousands Of U.S. Jobs

Meh, I call "BS" on this.

If "Big Bird" is making that kind of money it isn't going anywhere when/if the govt money stops. $46 million in revenue sounds like a pretty damn good argument for saying they don't need to be subsidized.

So many people have cable or satellite so I think the redundancy of all the stations s/b reconsidered. I've got at least two PBS stations on my satellite with both showing the same programming. It's unnecessary.

Edit: And as usual the broader point is overlooked. Big Bird and PBS was used as an example when Romney laid his budget approach., something along the lines of "is it so important we're willing to borrow from China for it?". Big Bird/PBS isn't a campaign issue; it's an illustration.

Fern

 

[zinfamous]

Meh, I call "BS" on this.

If "Big Bird" is making that kind of money it isn't going anywhere when/if the govt money stops. $46 million in revenue sounds like a pretty damn good argument for saying they don't need to be subsidized.

So many people have cable or satellite so I think the redundancy of all the stations s/b reconsidered. I've got at least two PBS stations on my satellite with both showing the same programming. It's unnecessary.

Fern

one of those stations is probably the persistent fund-raising station, right? We have various stations OTA and on standard cable. Mostly the same content, but one is dedicated to revenue generation.

 

[PJABBER]

Well the problem is things like Sesame Street on PBS educate children. Children who get educated at an early age tend to continue their education at a later age. Time and again studies have shown that those who are educated and intelligent, don't vote Republican. So Mitt is just aiming to create Republican voters as early as possible by keeping as much of the populace as ignorant as possible.

Troll post is still a troll post.

Frankly, and this is a generational perspective, you get entertainment from television and education from life experience and reading.

Sesame Street and Alphabet Rock are the types of edutainment programming that liberal (meaning essentially absent from their kids' lives) parents can plant their kids in front of and then run off to find themselves and still feel good about it. They may be touted as guilt free but they are not problem free.

It requires a whole different level of engagement to provide really good education and upbringing. Terrific parents will engage with their kids as much as possible, but that is not quite the liberal mantra of shameless self-indulgence, is it?

Having the option for private, charter and home schooling can also be a big bonus, but liberals support teachers unions that see those options as job and bennie threats.

Liberal programs, like LBJ's Great Society, have done much to destroy the chance for healthy nuclear families. Completely misguided liberal social welfare programs encourage, and have successfully supplanted two parent households, with absentee single parenting. This is a bold social experiment that has thus far yielded atrocious results. But plant your kid in front of Big Bird and you might just feel like you are doing something, anything.

Want PBS? Like their programming? Donate in a telethon or start a Kickstarter campaign for them instead of that new version of Orcs Must Die.

But don't tax the rest of us to pay for your pet edutainment programming.

 

[Throckmorton]

Meh, I call "BS" on this.

If "Big Bird" is making that kind of money it isn't going anywhere when/if the govt money stops. $46 million in revenue sounds like a pretty damn good argument for saying they don't need to be subsidized.

So many people have cable or satellite so I think the redundancy of all the stations s/b reconsidered. I've got at least two PBS stations on my satellite with both showing the same programming. It's unnecessary.

Edit: And as usual the broader point is overlooked. Big Bird and PBS was used as an example when Romney laid his budget approach., something along the lines of "is it so important we're willing to borrow from China for it?". Big Bird/PBS isn't a campaign issue; it's an illustration.

Fern

That's Sesame Street, not PBS.

 

[Throckmorton]

Troll post is still a troll post.

Frankly, and this is a generational perspective, you get entertainment from television and education from life experience and reading.

Sesame Street and Alphabet Rock are the types of edutainment programming that liberal (meaning essentially absent from their kids' lives) parents can plant their kids in front of and then run off to find themselves and still feel good about it. They may be touted as guilt free but they are not problem free.

It requires a whole different level of engagement to provide really good education and upbringing. Terrific parents will engage with their kids as much as possible, but that is not quite the liberal mantra of shameless self-indulgence, is it?

Having the option for private, charter and home schooling can also be a big bonus, but liberals support teachers unions that see those options as job and bennie threats.

Liberal programs, like LBJ's Great Society, have done much to destroy the chance for healthy nuclear families. Completely misguided liberal social welfare programs encourage, and have successfully supplanted two parent households, with absentee single parenting. This is a bold social experiment that has thus far yielded atrocious results. But plant your kid in front of Big Bird and you might just feel like you are doing something, anything.

Want PBS? Like their programming? Donate in a telethon or start a Kickstarter campaign for them instead of that new version of Orcs Must Die.

But don't tax the rest of us to pay for your pet edutainment programming.

Liberals are absentee parents?? Government encourages single parent households?