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Sure a 0.01 percent chunk of pork for one special interest group ain't much,
but you get 10,000 of them and that's why Congress is bankrupting America and
we have an $11+ trillion national debt
Presidential debate draws tweets for Big Bird by Michael Clancy - Oct. 4, 2012 04:59 PM The Republic | azcentral.com Arizona's PBS station Channel 8 (KAET) lately has been running a spot that shows Big Bird picking up a child, then touring the world Forrest Gump-style. In sort of the same vein, Big Bird walked into the presidential debate Wednesday evening, and on Thursday, it was the talk of the town. Republican candidate Mitt Romney, noting that he would cut any government program that requires borrowing from China, said he likes Big Bird and moderator Jim Lehrer, longtime PBS news anchor, but he would cut funding to their employer anyway. Twitter and Facebook lit up, as they did only a few other times during the debate. Eight times during the debate, the number of tweets passed the 120,000-per-hour mark. Three of them marked squabbles that President Barack Obama and Romney had with Lehrer. The Big Bird remark resulted in 135,000 tweets per minute, according to the social-media website. Many of them were along the lines of "Save Big Bird." Kelly McCullough, general manager of Channel 8 in Phoenix, the PBS station, noted that Republican attacks on public broadcasting happen occasionally. "Every decade or so, someone tries to go after our meager but vital subsidy," McCullough said. It's a relatively tiny amount of the federal budget, just 0.01 percent, and it is popular with the public, he said Channel 8 gets 16 percent of its budget from the subsidy, he said. Robbie Sherwood, a Democratic political analyst who blogged about the debate on Wednesday on azcentral.com, said conservatives believe public broadcasting, especially National Public Radio, is too liberal. "When asked how he would make massive budget cuts, it was the only detail (Romney) gave," Sherwood said. Generally, Sherwood said, Romney steered away from the conservative line he took during the primary to take a more centrist position in the debate. "The more he talked, the more he alienated the base, so the PBS thing was like throwing a bone to them," he said. Republican consultant Chuck Coughlin said the public-broadcasting line is "red meat" to the most conservative members of the party. "It grabs the attention of a certain portion of the electorate," he said. "The most highly partisan Republicans already distrust the media, and when you throw in public funding, they dislike it even more." At least, Coughlin said, Romney did not trash Sesame Street's most iconic figure. "He delivered the line with at least some reverence for Big Bird." |