October 9, 2012

SESAME STREET Tries To Get Out Of Presidential Politics


The biggest surprise of the general election has been the emergence of Big Bird and public television as a major issue.  Who would have guessed that, after Romney's winning the debate, the biggest take away would be his comments about the bird?! Though it all sounds silly on the surface, it really isn't and I think it's great that people are finally being enlightened to the ridiculous notion (one Republicans have harbored for years) that cutting things like federal support for PBS (and the arts in general) will somehow take a dent out of the deficit.  Of course, the percentage of these programs as part of the budget is less than 1/10th of 1 percent and now, with Romney's infamous line, hopefully the voting public has been educated about this issue.

However, on the flip side, the folks at SESAME STREET are somewhat queasy about being drawn into the battle between Romney and Obama.  They reluctantly OK'd a Big Bird appearance on SNL with some revisions to the script that made the spot more funny than political.  But, after the Obama campaign released an ad with Big Bird, the folks at the Children Television's Workshop said enough is enough and today asked that the ad be removed from circulation. The ad itself is sort of a riot but it's also understandable that CTW does not want to be in the fray of the election. But they are in it now.... whether they like it or not.