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Mitt Romney’s now infamous pledge to eliminate federal funding for PBS despite his affection for Big Bird and Jim Lehrer is getting still more pushback. Today a Los Angeles animation exec and an Idaho student are planning a ‘Million Muppet March’ for November 3rd at the National Mall in Washington DC three days before the election. Reuters reports Animax’s Michael Bellavia and student Chris Mecham came up with the idea separately during the October 3rd debate. Bellavia bought the Internet address www.millionmuppetmarch.com and discovered Mecham already had the Facebook page. The two fans of Sesame Street connected before the debate was over and started planning. PBS received $445 million in federal budget outlays in 2012. Mecham comes from rural Idaho and says public broadcasting is important in sparsely populated areas that receive no other signals over the air. The men concede they may fall short of a million people but “it does seem like we might get close to the biggest ever assemblage of puppets in one place and probably the most ever puppets marching on Washington,” says Bellavia.
Related:
Jon Stewart Batters Obama Big Bird Ad – Video
Sesame Workshop Wants Obama’s Big Bird Ad Taken Down
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Look, I love Big Bird and the Muppets as much as anyone. But can anyone tell me how a company whose intellectual property generated $211 million from toy and consumer product sales between 2003 and 2006 is deserving of TAX MONEY. The middle class is getting squeezed, let’s march for THEM… NOT the company that brought in about $140 million in revenues in 2008.
This is absurd.
Absurd?
So is multi-billionaires getting more and more tax breaks
That’s absolutely true, Vince. And I’m no more in favor for tax breaks for the multi-billionaires of this country than I am giving tax money to a multi-million dollar enterprise like Sesame Street.
Ironically, now that the light of financial scrutiny has been shown on Big Bird and company… I think there will be growing public pressure to pull or reduce tax payer funding no matter WHO wins in November.
I am looking forward to this. We haven’t had a really good left-wing freak show since “Occupy Wall Street” presented themselves to the world. The sight of PBS defenders clamoring to steal tax money for a big puppet will ruin Obama’s chances for sure.
agree with you muppet fan – always wondered about Seasame St in this day and age still getting tax dollars. and pbs, let’s be honest people really pbs is so high brow know on some of its programming it’s not the reason pbs was set up in the first place. that being said, not sure taking it away is really the best option. surely mentioning it directly in a Presidential debate as soon as I heard it – moronic. There is a place and time for anything. THat being said, I want a millionmuppet t-shirt to wear at the gym – hilarious and kudos. and to people getting really angry on here politically over this issue seriously there are so many other issues to be discussing pbs during an election this big is just hilarious either for or against.
The amount you quote in the article is wrong. The 445 million is for 2 years. The Corporation For Public Broadcasting receives the money. Television receives 75% (PBS and Local stations) and Radio receives 25% (Local stations and NPR). CPB funds program producers as well and Childrens Television Workshop receives some money from CPB to produce Sesame Street. How much? Definitely NOT $445 million.
The 2009 financial disclosure from Sesame Workshop, the company that produces the program, shows that just $7.9 million came from government grants out of $130 million in total revenue, or about 6 percent.
Exactly:
1. If the money was cut, Sesame St. would, of course, survive.
2. They are using cute ‘Kids TV’ characters to blackmail the public to their cause, even though they have very little to do with the issue. (A riff on the typical liberal tactic of finding a “sympathetic” but irrelevant “victim” of a conservative policy).
3. The fact that $0.5bn is but a tiny fraction of the deficit, is, of course, the fault of the ‘Trillion-dollar-deficit-one-term-President’. But it is no reason not to cut the money.
Ditto to Muppet fan and to Vince; the billionaires aren’t asking taxpayer to subsidize them except when you consider tobacco and oil industries. Isn’t it time to end propping up all self-sufficient industries?
Um, you’re not referring to PBS when you mention this ‘profit’. Romney is talking about cutting funding to PBS. Where is PBS’ profit? Oh yeah, they don’t have one.
Look, I love my Ford as much as anyone, but can anyone tell me how the top three oil companies who generated $90 BILLION in revenue last year are deserving of TAX Susidies, and the senate refused to abolish those subsidies in March 2012 The middle class is getting squeezed, and they get subsidies!
This is absurd.
Wow. These people are as delusional as President Obama. In the grand scheme of things, do these people really think that Big Bird is more important then the financial future of this country and national security? Big Bird is the one percent!
The country is broke! Why can’t the MULTI MILLIONS in trademarks and merchandising bring in enough money to cover the 12% of the annual budget that the government provides. Come on. How stupid is this. It is NOT the governments responsibility to provide $450 million in funding. Why can’t PBS go commercial? Why can’t the Sesame Street brand use a portion of the gazillions of dollars in merchandise they bring it to cover the $450 million? Trust me. Big Bird makes enough money a year to cover that 12% of the budget.
I say cut it! Cut it now. Let all of the Limo Liberals of Hollywood that always lecture the rest of us that they’re okay with giving their “fair share” give their fair share! Where’s Peter Berg, Eva Longoria, Scarlett Johansson, Steven Spielberg, Oprah, George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Ellen Barkin… come on. If each of them donate from their surplus every year they can cover the 12% of the cost that the government has no business funding!
I don’t actually come from rural Idaho, but much of Idaho IS rural and even us urbanites here are sensitive to that.
If you want PBS to turn into nonstop Honey Boo Boo child, go right ahead and cut it. Who needs quality educational TV, when we could be watching “Ow My Balls”, right?
But I do have to say, making the “limo liberals” pay their fair share is a great idea. Raising the top tax bracket would add a lot of revenue, with a minimal effect on the economy.
The right wing will not be satisfied until they have silenced any media source they can’t control.
Oh for fuck’s sake! Histrionic much?
Members of the military are fighting in war zones without helmets (and children sweltering in un-airconditioned classrooms) due to not enough funding but this regime is giving hundreds of millions of dollars a year to a cable show that generates hundreds of millions?
Please explain this “logic”, drama queen.
1. We shouldn’t be in the middle east in the first place. At this point, we’re just stirring up a hornet’s nest for no good reason.
2. There’s a tremendous amount of fraud, waste, and abuse in military contracts. Reforming that would save billions without harming actual readiness. The only reason we haven’t, is because someone always benefits from waste, and those people would launch a multimillion dollar political campaign against anyone who would threaten it.
I don’t think we gave Sesame Street $445M. Maybe PBS. But not Sesame Workshop. If we did, then something is very wrong; mean, are they making no money on those tickle me elmo dolls, branded diapers, branded clothes, theme park add-ins, DVDs, videos, merchandising, licensing rights, Hasbro toys & games?
Yeah, I think that $445M went to PBS broadcasting arm. Because Sesame Street should not be hard up for money… unless it’s horrifically run (and to my knowledge, it’s not)
The 2009 tax form shows that Sesame Workshop brought in about $140 million in revenues in 2008, with government grants accounting for just over $14 million of that (roughly 10 percent).
$14 million dollars. For a company that brought in $211 million from toy and consumer product sales in three years?!
How many teachers would that hire?
If we want to support Public Broadcasting, lets support the shows that don’t bring in $140 million dollars a year.
Brilliant.
Hey Joey, Joseph and Muppet Fan – I hope you have as much indignance about the billions in subsidies for Big Oil as you do for Big Bird. (And by the way, i believe the subsidy at issue is for PBS, not the producer of Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop.)
Actually I have even MORE indignance for the oil companies receiving subsidies. And I won’t be on the street marching to support them, either.
By the way… I’m not against subsidies for public broadcasting in general… but I’m guessing Jim Lehrer’s Newshour isn’t generating $140 million annually.
Are you kidding? Companies like Halliburton are educating our children better than a public television ever will. They deserve the money. PBS is nothing but liberal indoctrination propaganda.
Billions? You mean the 2.9 billion Big oil received, versus the NINETY BILLION alternative energy received last year? Big Oil brought in huge profits, which it used to employ hundreds of thousands of Americans, as well as invest in the communities in which it operates. The hell did Alternative Energy do, other than fold pathetically, or turn out to be just a huge tax cheat like Solyndra?
Go peddle your BS somewhere else, Hollyretard.
Wow…such bitching over what amounts to {in government terms) such an insignificant amount of money. Cutting funding to PBS is not going to make things better. When it comes down to it, the amount going to PBS is basically pennies compared to the real issues. PBS is just an easy target.
True. And it doesn’t say much for Romney’s intelligence, foresight or stategic sense that he would make a fuss about such an unimportant part of the budget deficit and have it bite him on the butt like it has. There’s no way to spin beating up on muppets into a positive. This isnt about PBS, its about Romney’s judgement, that he would gratuitously shoot himself in the foot like he has.
True… it’s a drop in the bucket, but does that make it anymore of a sound investment of government money? I can think of a lot of families that could benefit from that money. Or teachers. Or investment into green energy. Investment in jobs. Infrastructure.
Every penny counts!
The money is not just for Sesame Street NOR is it just for PBS. Its also for the NPR. Go look at the full PBS lineup and tell me besides Sesame Street and Barney how many shows bring in ANY money.
Mighty Mit says we can have Sesame Street produced in Mexico and hide all of the profits in an off shore account. That way VP Mini Mit can still watch his favorite shows.
If they can come out to support PBS by the million then why can’t they come up with enough money to support the programing that they like? Why should I pay for it? Will they pay for my subscription to HBO or Starz?
$445m is the total of budget of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is all federally-funded public broadcasting, not just PBS or Sesame Street.
Exactly. Its less than 2 bucks per person. Nothing to complain about and definitly wasn’t worth Romney mentioning since its not even a full percent of the total government budget.
Irrespective of the numbers I sincerely hope that no Muppets are tasered. Think of the cost of the feather and felt clean-up alone. Billions and billions and billions of tax-payer money!
How utterly misguided and ridiculous. Sesame Street is not owned or produced by PBS. Sesame Street and its characters are the property of Sesame Workshop. It is a multi-national business enterprise not a government program. The show hasn’t received a dime of federal funding since 1981. The program is in syndication and the rights to broadcast it are currently purchased by PBS. If PBS were to drop the program, the broadcast rights would be purchased by one of PBS’s numerous competitors – none of which receive taxpayer support. Sesame Workshop receives millions of dollars in commercial royalties for the use of its characters in movies, books, toys, advertisements, etc. The program does not need PBS. It will exist regardless of whether PBS receives federal funding. In fact, the show is shown in more than 20 countries worldwide by foreign broadcasters who also pay the program’s owner for broadcast rights. Please explain to the American people why taxpayers should be subsidizing PBS to the tune of $445 million annually to the exclusion of it competitors in the cable industry all of which are competing with PBS for viewership without the government’s help. According to Nielsen, 90.4% of U.S. households subscribe to either cableTV or satellite TV. More than 75% percent of households subscribe to broadband internet service. A large number of the remainder have dial-up internet. There are numerous children, educational, and arts related channels who compete with PBS for viewers without a dime of taxpayer money. They include Nickolodeon, the Cartoon Network, the Disney Channel, the History Channel, Arts and Entertainment Network, the Learning Channel, Animal Planet, the National Geographic Channel and others. Someone explain why PBS should be singled out for taxpayer funding expecially when we have a $16 trillion+ debt.
Well said! The spending cuts we need to make to avoid catastrophe for our country and its future generations are so substantial that everyone will be impacted in some way. I’m sure we’ll hear screaming about every dime that gets cut, but its gotta happen. Yes, there will be important debates about when, where and how deep to cut, but we can’t get stalled in debates about everything and there can’t be many “sacred cows” because every dollar spent is sacred to somebody.
Thanks for the well stated and factual post. I must say I am somewhat surprized by the fact that the readers of this generally liberal slanting blog are so overwhelmingly favorable to taking away the taxpayer provided handout to PBS.
Does PBS need THREE sub-channel networks? PBS Kids,PBS World, and PBS Create – I say merge all 3 into PBS-2, and then lease the remaining sub-channel bandwidth to commercial broadcasting.
It’s likely only a few hundered will show up, but PBS will still call it a huge success. Biden may show up and say a few words….cause he is a muppet
NervisRex – last time I checked $2.9 billion is billions. And, my point was that companies making the obscene profits that the oil companies make do not need subsidies and should not be getting them. Simple point but you in your macho reactionary way have to defend big oil. they don’t need defending anymore than they need an extra $2.9 billion. Not that i was on the topic, but since you brought it up, renewables are the future and ultimately the subsidies there will pay off and not be needed but for now the industry needs help to get over the hump — and get over the pump.
You want to know why we need to preserve funding for public broadcasting?
TLC was founded by the Dept. of Health & NASA as an educational channel. It was privatized. Now it shows Honey Boo Boo.
If Sesame Street shouldn’t receive funding because of their merchandising profits then why in the heck are we subsidizing petroleum companies when profits have never been higer over the last decade?
We’re NOT subsidizing petroleum companies – they get deductions from taxes on money THEY EARN.
PBS, on the other hand, steals our money outright.
Silly. There aren’t even a million muppets.
Our economy is in the toilet, and were worried about PBS? Seriously? People need to get their priorities in order.
When are these multi-millionaire PBS parasites going to stop stealing OUR MONEY to fund their leftist agenda?
Roast Big Bird with potatoes and gravy – may as well get something useful out of PBS.
Romney’s cutting of PBS funding and especially BigBird is a symbol of the greed of the rich Republicans who would love to do anything to bring us back to the two-class system of the nineteety Century. Keep the masses ignorant and you keep your servant class and destroy the middle-class by destroying public education. Sesame Street was a great antidote to Reagan’s cuts to early education preschool programs. Sesame Street teaches reading skills and a few common values, like the need to share. Obviously, such a value is not being taught in preppy schools.
You know who else teaches reading skills and few common values? Teachers! Classes in the elementary school where I work currently run between 35-40 students. Just the money spent on Sesame Street (a multi-million dollar enterprise) alone would hire hundreds more teachers. Students would be better off not watching television and learning in a classroom.
Guys, there are better places to cut. This is ridiculous. We can’t Go around cutting everything education related in this country…that’s how we have ended up in this mess in the first place. We need a smarter generation, people. There is no excuse for how low we rank in education in comparison to other countries. It’s really kind of disgusting.