December 30th, 2011
11:10 AM ET
Mitt Romney: Big Bird needs adsRepublican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney told supporters in Iowa Wednesday about his plan to shut down funding for programs like PBS. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Romney laid out intentions to "stop certain programs" and include advertisements on the children’s show “Sesame Street.” "Close them. Turn 'em off. Even some you like," he said of his plan.
"You might say, 'I like the National Endowment for the Arts.' I do," Romney said. "I like PBS. We subsidize PBS. Look, I'm going to stop that. I'm going to say that PBS is going to have to have advertisements." "We're not going to kill Big Bird," the politician added, perhaps aware of the ramifications of attacking “Sesame Street.” "But Big Bird is going to have advertisements. Alright?"
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Sad, Romney. Pandering to the "cut-government-spending-no-matter-what-the-consequences" crowd, at the expense of children's education.
@Boo Lol, I agree completely.
Romney will sell the naming rights, were going to have Amazon.com Street, Rand Corporation's Electric Comapany, and Wal-Mart Word World.
Oh that's a great idea. Instead of having a safe place where kids can learn, without all the influence of corporate America, we should constantly interrupt their learning with corporate brainwashing so that we get them hooked earlier. Why stop with PBS? We could do the same with public schools. "Ok class, in a moment, we're going to open our math books to page 37, but first, I'd like to talk to you about feminine hygiene. Do you ever feel not so fresh?" How about subsidizing roads? Instead of red lights, we could have a large billboard. Green, yellow, and Cymbalta.
Why, why, why is it so impossible to find a candidate with more than half a brain, who isn't firmly planted in corporate pockets, who has some personal integrity, and is willing to listen to all sides of an issue? Someone who really understands what it means to be a "public SERVANT". Is that really so much to ask?
First of all, there are already advertisements at the start and end of Sesame Street and other PBS Kids programs. Every day, an ad for Beaches Family Resorts. When Sesame Street was originally designed to help low-income urban children learn skills their middle class and upper class counterparts were already learning. Can low-income kids go to Beaches resorts? Secondly, if cutting funding to PBS or NPR was going to really help the federal government balance its budget or pay off its deficit, that would be one thing. But it is a tiny portion of our federal government's spending. If we can appropriate billions of dollars for wars or to bail out Wall Street, can we really not spend a little bit of dough so our kids can gain some important literacy and number skills without having to sit through commercials (even though they already show commercials for Beaches, Chuck-E-Cheese, and United Healthcare before and after Sesame Street)? This is just a non-issue dressed up as an issue.
Hallelujah.
Whenever politicians suggest cutting these types of programs (which represent a tiny fraction of government spending), it is always a dead giveaway that said politician isn't willing to roll up his or her sleeves and invest any time really examining the budget in detail. If they were willing to put in the work, dig through the budget line by line and eliminate TRUE waste, they could trim government spending without having to screw over kids, working families, and the poor.
Just going to say one thing, PBS = Sesame street Commercial Programming = SpongeBob Square Pants .....enough said.
he's in the k k k
Mitt is a slush
Romney is a ****ing moron.
u would believe in 2012 b.s. n santa clause
I have a hard time believing that with as much merchandise that has Sesame street has licensed that they need government money. I agree on this. We as a country do not need to pay for PBS. This service was once important for America but now it is no longer needed.
I used to work for Sesame Workshop. They don't make any significant money on all the merchandise because they are a non-profit corporation. Their goal is not to make profit, only to break even each year.
"This service was once important for America but now it is no longer needed"
Yes, of course, why would we ever need to help kids learn to read.
Hey Mad! I have to say, I agree w/ya. (Especially about Santa & his sleigh! LOL) Speaking of Santa, hope you had a good Christmas! New year is right around the corner! Man, that came fast. Have fun bringing it in! (Everyone else, too!)
What's next, corporate decals slapped all over Santa and his sleigh? Romney has no chance against Obama anyway. The republicans might as well sit this one out. They made fools of themselves last time and the choices are even worse now.
Mayan Apocalypse 2012
Maybe BAIN CAPITAL will become PBS endowment’s benefactor?
Probably is not their corporate policy to promote culture, nor humanity.
Romney’s is a bi product of BAIN CAPITAL, and look how he turned out; can mimic emotions but not feel them, like the android DATA; a fictional character in the Star Trek.