Puppets protest Romney threat to US public broadcasting 
 
 By Robert MacPherson (AFP) – Nov 3, 2012 
 
 WASHINGTON — Puppets urged politicians Saturday to keep up federal funding for US public broadcasting after Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney threatened to pull the plug on Big Bird and friends. 
 
 Organizers of the Million Puppet March on Capitol Hill in support of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television and National Public Radio (NPR) put the turnout at around 1,000 people, three days before the US presidential vote. 
 
 Characters from the children's show "Sesame Street" -- a PBS staple since the network's founding in 1970 -- figured prominently, including two Big Birds, many Kermits and Elmos, and a Miss Piggy grooving to "Dancing in the Streets." 
 
 But the family-friendly rally on a chilly and cloudy day also attracted a frisky marionette of President Barack Obama and a blue-suited protester in a Mitt Romney mask jammed into a trash can with Big Bird on his back. 
 
 There was no shortage of sometimes witty placards, like "Keep your Mitts off Big Bird," "puppets for peace" and, on the arm of a middle-aged gentleman with a skunk puppet, "Romney smells funny." 
 
 "We're just making it clear that public media matters and it's something that we want to see supported and we still want to see federal funding of," said co-organizer Michael Bellavia, a Los Angeles animation producer. 
 
 "We think the system that's there now works, where it's a mix of private and public financing," he told AFP. 
 
 Triggering the protest was Romney's pledge, during a televised election debate with Obama last month, that he would end federal support for PBS and its 354 non-profit member stations if we wins the White House race. 
 
 "I like PBS. I love Big Bird," said Romney, name-checking the leggy yellow character who teaches the alphabet on "Sesame Street," but warning: "I'm gonna stop the subsidy to PBS." 
 
 PBS was not involved in organizing Saturday's protest, but it has said the "federal investment" in public broadcasting is only "about one one-hundredth of one percent of the federal budget." 
 
 Craig Aaron, chief executive of Free Press, a media advocacy group, put the figure Saturday at $440 million per year, or about $1.50 per American -- less than a cup of coffee. 
 
 Even that amount covers only 15 percent of the total cost of public television and radio in a nation where big corporations dominate broadcasting. Donations from individuals and foundations make up most of the rest. 
 
 To halt supporting public broadcasting "would be the same as saying we don't want to support Santa Claus," said professional puppeteer Scott Land, the man pulling the strings of the Obama marionette. "People would be outraged." 
 
 Critics counter that, with the federal deficit running at $1.1 trillion this year, federal spending cuts have to start somewhere, and that public TV and radio can easily find other ways to pay its bills. 
 
 "The Big Bird fracas illustrates how out of touch with reality our budget fights have become," Trevor Burrus, a policy analyst at the conservative Cato Institute think tank, wrote in USA Today this week. 
 
 Besides "Sesame Street," PBS is best known for commercial-free current affairs shows, major documentaries and science programming. It also brings British dramas such as "Downton Abbey" to American audiences. 
 
 The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, set up by Congress to oversee federal support for public TV and radio, kept its distance from Saturday's protest. But in a brief statement to AFP, it said: "We appreciate the recent outpouring of support and affirmation for the value of public broadcasting. 
 
 Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| Story highlights The rally was inspired by comments Romney made during a debate 
 
 He says he would stop federal funding of PBS, home to "Sesame Street" and Big Bird 
 
 Some protesters dressed as their favorite characters 
 
 "El-mo. We won't go!" 
 
 The twist on a popular protest chant echoed Saturday as people marched -- many in costume or with puppets -- in support of public broadcasting. 
 
 The so-called Million Puppet March in Washington was inspired by comments GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney made during the first debate. Romney promised to stop funding to the Public Broadcasting Service, home to "Sesame Street" and Big Bird. 
 
 Protesters met at Lincoln Park and marched to the Capitol Reflecting Pool. 
 
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 "We came down to support PBS and to support freedom of speech in our nation's capital," said Jim Brett, who went to Washington with his kids, along with various puppets. 
 
 Will Big Bird be downsized? 
 
 "PBS is important to me because I grew up on it," he said. "It's a foundation for our children today." 
 
 One protester held a placard that read, "Hundreds of channels to influence consumers! Zero channels to invest in citizens?" Others were dressed like Cookie Monster and the Count, both popular "Sesame Street" characters. 
 
 PBS is partially funded through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which receives about $450 million a year -- a fraction of this year's $3.5 trillion federal government spending. "Sesame Street" is produced by Sesame Workshop, which says 93% of its costs are funded by corporate sponsors and licensing. 
 
 "I'm sorry, Jim, I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS," Romney said to Jim Lehrer, who moderated the first debate and anchors "PBS Newshour." 
 
 "I'm going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird," he said. "Actually like you, too. But I'm not going to -- I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for." 
 
 Romney really does like PBS
– PBS supporters are planning a "Million Muppet March" at Washington DC's National Mall on Nov. 3 to defend government funding for the network, Reuters reports. Organizers aren't sure yet how many will actually attend, 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 one. The title, which was dreamed up by two men separately after Mitt Romney's comments about PBS and Big Bird at the first presidential debate, is a play off 1995's "Million Man March" for civil rights, also held at the National Mall. Los Angeles animation executive Michael Bellavia, 43, bought www.millionmuppetmarch.com while watching the debate, then later discovered that Idaho university student Chris Mecham, 46, had launched a Facebook page with the same name. Shortly after the debate ended, they were already on the phone planning the protest. "Romney was using Muppets as a rhetorical device to talk about getting rid of public broadcasting, which is really so much bigger than Sesame Street," Mecham says. "While he was still talking I was thinking of ways I could express my frustration at that argument."