Rerun: Liberals Pose With PBS Kids Characters, Ernie and Bert Get 'GOPink Slip'
Every time someone Congress considers reducing federal funding for public broadcasting, PBS lobbyists and liberal Democrats trot out Muppets and lovable cartoon characters in their defense. Chris Moody of the Daily Caller reported that a human-sized Arthur the Aardvark stood behind liberals today on Capitol Hill as they pledged to protect PBS.
The friendly but silent aardvark joined Democratic Reps. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and others to hit back against Republicans who have pledged to cut the funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the next budget.
“We need your help today,” Markey said as a person dressed as the character walked toward the Capitol building. “We can’t leave Arthur and all of his pals in the lurch.”
The members stood behind dolls of Sesame Street’s Big Bird, Grover and Elmo. Behind them, House aides held up signs showing Bert and Ernie being handed a letter that reads, “GOPink Slip: You are fired,” and another that showed cartoon characters being tossed away from a scale weighed down by “Big Oil.”
“We’re here to create jobs, not lay off Bert and Ernie,” said Rep. Nita Lowey of New York.
Rep. Lowey used the same tactic in a January 1995 House hearing, putting Ernie and Bert puppets on her hands. (I was there. She and Nancy Pelosi talked to each other throughout most of the conservatives' testimony.) In fact, Lowey's website claims her puppet act was recognized worldwide for saving PBS:
When GOP leaders threatened to eliminate the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) in the 1990s, Lowey "invited" puppets Bert and Ernie to a Congressional hearing. The resulting worldwide publicity is largely credited with saving the agency.
It could surely be said that the first month of Republican control in 1995 was a high water mark for PBS funding fears. But the idea that PBS was on the brink of termination is as overwrought as the idea that it was saving by a Congresswoman wearing hand puppets.
Liberals still can't stand the idea that at this late stage of television history, PBS or NPR stations could continue without government subsidies they constantly suggest are only 2 to 15 percent of their budgets. Instead, they drag out the kiddie characters in a hoary attempt to intimidate the Congress. Moody reported that the thought of reverting to only free-market, consumer-driven broadcasting would be “like treating the Library of Congress as an amusement park rather than as a seat of knowledge,” said Rep. Paul Tonko of New York.
- Tim Graham's blog
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Comments
Libs in Congress are
Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:23pm.
Libs in Congress are desperate and don't realize how ridiculous they appear when they do chidish stunts like that (pun intended).
Simply Shameless
Submitted by Boil It Down on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:25pm.
I'll file this under exploitation of children and weak minded adults. Oh yeah ... and reasons to defund public broadcasting. At a time when we have to find ways of cutting the waste out of spending I suspect we'll see a lot of this kind of behavior rather than focusing on the job at hand.
Keep track of these politicians so that they may be properly punished in the elections.
Sesame Street already has sponsors
Submitted by JeffC... on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:27pm.
Between muppet Murray's "Word on the Street" and the opening bars of "Sunny Day," there are two minutes of video of companies like PNC Bank and Beaches Resorts who underwrite broadcast of Sesame Street. They look an awful lot like commercials. Get more, and problem solved. How much does Sesame Workshop make off character licensing and video sales?Sesame Subsidies
Submitted by Tim Graham on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:31pm.
Jeff: At one time, Sesame Street had more than 1,000 licensed products (old data).
Here are the Sesame Workshop Funding Partners.
Get more
Submitted by JeffC... on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 4:42pm.
Thirty years ago, when my little brother was young enough to watch Sesame Street, I remember the section of Sesame Street licensed clothing in the little boy's section at J. C. Penney's. Now that I have an Elmo-fan little girl, the only place I know to go nearby for a good selection of Elmo clothes is Sea World. (We have annual passes, so it's no big deal to go there.) My wife isn't a fan of buying clothes without trying them on, so no mail order option. Let's get Penney's and Sesame Street back together.I have said it before and I will say it again.
Submitted by Ashrak on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:44pm.
Those who will use children as political pawns are the lowest of the low.
Indeed, they are only slightly better than those who use them for porn props.
Make your case, that is fine, but do not treat kids, who cannot defend themselves, as pawns.
I agree. Let no child remain
Submitted by Jer on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:58pm.
I agree. Let no child remain defenseless against an onslaught of hired thugs dressed in cartoon animal suits. It is high time we armed each and every toddler with his or her very own AK-47.
Jer
Jer, that is the
Submitted by bassndude on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 5:11pm.
Jer, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Arm toddlers with cheap Russian or Chinese weapons! They should get M-4's. Good American weapons.
Save a SeAL, club a liberal/troll!!
→ Jer
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 5:18pm.
Not every town is Chicago.
It's understandable you'd want that, though. I hear there are more guns in Chicago than Kenya. ;-)
Jer
Submitted by well99 on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 5:33pm.
Actually 22s would be better.If your going to do something do it right.Just a note:Make sure they going thru Hunter's Safety course first.I heard Kemit is the instructor for the class.
Please, someone at the RNC
Submitted by rwesley2.0 on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:44pm.
Please, someone at the RNC make a poster showing the revenues that Sesame Street and other popular kids shows on PBS makes via toys, books, etc. Show the public that these shows make serious bank in the capitalist market and this will shut the dems up real quick when it comes to funding the nightmare that is PBS.
It's time for those two
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:49pm.
It's time for those two sexual deviants Bert and Ernie to go, along with the drug dealer who lives in the garbage can.
small error*
Submitted by cajun2 on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:49pm.
Someone needs to put names under each photo cause I cant tell which ones are Bert and Ernie.
PBS and NPR--your tax dollars
Submitted by liberalsarefunny on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:51pm.
PBS and NPR--your tax dollars at work.
You're welcome.
→ Harry Reid
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:52pm.
Somebody should have told Harry Reid that Big Bird and Arthur aren't real.
Harry looks so butthurt in that photo, like he's praying for the repose of their souls.
It's a re-run all right
Submitted by jon_torlin on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:54pm.
Tim,
Thanks for pointing out that this happened in 1995, it just goes to show that the Democrats really have nothing new to offer for just about anything, so they have to revert to their playbook from the past.
Many of these new Republicans should be informed that this is nothing new on the Dems' part and it should show how pathetic their tactics can be.
-Jon
Why aren't we publicly
Submitted by Hero Squad on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 3:57pm.
Why aren't we publicly funding Nick Jr. as well?
Maybe the Republicans should counter by standing next to Dora the Explorer and claim that government funding isn't necessary to sustain good children's shows.
*
"People only insist that a debate stop when they are afraid of what might be learned if it continues." - George Will
Would rather stand with
Submitted by bassndude on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 4:09pm.
Would rather stand with Nick's Victorius crew...I sure like that Cat...shes so innocent, on TV. Or with iCarly...they need public funding and PBS and NPR are sucking it all up!
Save a SeAL, club a liberal/troll!!
Facts: 1) We all knew the
Submitted by Van Halen on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 4:14pm.
Facts:
1) We all knew the Left would pull this tired stunt.
2) The country is out of money.
3) Every government program must see cuts, many must be eliminated entirely.
4) If the Corporation for Public Broadcasting can get taxpayer subsidies, so can Fox News.
5) The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is as Liberal as they come.
6)) The Republicans need to stay on course and defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The benefits are that we all save money and PBS is forced onto a level playing field.
Big Bird failed to teach economics
Submitted by Agnostic on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 4:14pm.
Perhaps they should have been teaching children economics instead of pushing environmentalism and multiculturalism and the children would know how and why to fund or defund these programs.
I guess they don't want people making informed choices after all.
BTW, Arthur the Aardvark, too, is a Kenyan
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 4:17pm.
And his green card expired 15 years ago.
Pick 'em up, Nappy.
Any good PBS show would be a big hit on commercial TV
Submitted by Red Jeep on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 4:32pm.
I am sure Sesame Street would be grabbed in a minute by one of the Big 3 TV stations if PBS went black tomorrow. The cost per commercial mimute would be high.
Other shows would find homes on The History Channel, A & E, TLC, Discovery, HGTV, etc. easily.
Ernie and Bert would not collect one week of unemployment.
Doesn't Sesame Street make
Submitted by rbosque on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 4:55pm.
Doesn't Sesame Street make close to a Billion dollars from their products revenue???
Big Bird's Bank Account
Submitted by Radical1979 on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 7:22pm.
I'd like to know where all that revenue is going. After all, it should be pumped right back into the Federal government, since we pay for it. But I wouldn't be surprised if Jim Henson's family is doing quite well from it.
It's time for Big Bird and
Submitted by jdawg2009 on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 7:14pm.
It's time for Big Bird and Arthur the Aardvark to get a seconds job, like so many in this country.
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-spokane/democrats-enlist-arthur-the-aardvark-effort-to-demagogue-budget-debate
Politicians Making a Point about Budget Cuts with Puppets...WTF?
Submitted by gruyere cheese on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 7:58pm.
Don't these people know that sesame street puppets are fictional characters, manipulated by humans? If anything, they should have made a point of the people handling these puppets facing lay-offs not the puppets.
What is this world coming to?
Typical liberal,
Submitted by malthus on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 9:15pm.
worried about caricatures of animals rather than real life characters. The wife got a pink slip - thanks to the fat black mama doing Barry's dirty work at the FDA. Since when has it been acceptable for the Government to relentlessly persecute companies in the medical field forcing short sales to foreigners? These jobs didn't need to be lost, there was no wrong doing. Where was the help for them? - there was none. Go ahead and pull your breasts out in public for your babies, cut my portions at the local restaurant, monitor my garden, force your green energy and spend my money you liberal crap weasels. You're caring about the things that don't matter while you let businesses burn. You all suck, you aren't breathing life, liberty or progress into anything.
Offensive Sesame Street
Submitted by Free Stinker on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 10:56pm.
Here is something for the Libs to flip out about
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
Note to Democrats try'n to appear intelligent......
Submitted by donabernathy on Thu, 02/17/2011 - 3:41am.
it's never a good idea to stand next to a 16 year old in an Arthur suit.
P.S.. I recognize Curley, Larry and Moe.... but who is da dame
roflmao
See this for an illustration
Submitted by Beukeboom on Thu, 02/17/2011 - 10:50am.
See this for an illustration of the eventual outcome if PBS is defunded.