Mark Steyn: Will Big Bird ever leave the government nest?

OC Register ^ | 6 Oct 2012 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

If Sesame Street is not commercially viable, then nothing is, and we should just cut to the chase and bail out everything.

Apparently, Frank Sinatra served as Mitt Romney's debate coach. As he put it about halfway through "That's Life": "I'd jump right on a big bird and then I'd fly ... ."

That's what Mitt did in Denver. Ten minutes in, he jumped right on Big Bird, and then he took off – and never looked back, while the other fellow, whose name escapes me, never got out of the gate. It takes a certain panache to clobber not just your opponent but also the moderator. Yet that's what the killer Mormon did when he declared that he wasn't going to borrow money from China to pay for Jim Lehrer and Big Bird on PBS. It was a terrific alpha-male moment, not just in that it rattled Lehrer, who seemed too preoccupied contemplating a future reading the hog prices on the WZZZ Farm Report to regain his grip on the usual absurd format, but in the sense that it indicated a man entirely at ease with himself – in contrast to wossname, the listless sourpuss staring at his shoes

[Rummyfan]

[Rummyfan]

The Corporation of Public Broadcasting receives nearly half-a-billion dollars a year from taxpayers, which it disburses to PBS stations, who, in turn, disburse it to Big Bird and Jim Lehrer. I don't know what Big Bird gets, but, according to Sen. Jim DeMint, the President of Sesame Workshop, Gary Knell, received in 2008 a salary of $956,513. In that sense, Big Bird and Sen. Harry Reid embody the same mystifying phenomenon: they've been in "public service" their entire lives and have somehow wound up as multimillionaires.

[Rummyfan]

(Full disclosure: Some years ago, I hosted a lavish BBC special, and, at the meeting intended to sell it to PBS, the executive from "Great Performances" said he could only sign off on the deal if I were digitally edited out and replaced by Angela Lansbury. Murder, he shrieked. Lest I sound bitter, I should say I am in favor of this as a more general operating principle for public broadcasting: for example, "A Prairie Home Companion" would be greatly improved by having Garrison Keillor digitally replaced by Paul Ryan.)

[a fool in paradise]

How many of those demanding PBS-NPR should continue receiving public funding never give a dime at any of the seasonal viewer contribution fundraisers?

Those who believe it is good programming can pay to continue funding it. Hollywood celebrities who lobby congress to fund public broadcasting could afford to give a million or more if it really meant something to them.

[Condor 63]

Actually Big Bird is a pretty good mascot for liberals.He is more than capable of getting off the public dole and making plenty of money on his own merits....

He just doesn’t want to.

[tanknetter]

My understanding is that Sesame Street is a revenue stream for CTW and PBS: Big Bird and the rest not only pay their own way through merchandizing and licensing fees, they turn a profit that helps support other CTW efforts.

That’s why the whole “Republicans are gonna kill Big Bird” rings so hollow: the only way Big Bird/Sesame Street dies as a result of cuts is if the Liberals running PBS decide to cut off their own noses to spite their face rather than drop shows that only brie-eating/chardonnay-sipping insomniacs watch and scale back their broadcasting day by a few hours each night/early morning.

[John W]

Typically fantastic Mark Steyn.

[baddog 219]

[DJ MacWoW]

ICE T @FINALLEVEL Message to the President: "No weed before the next debate homie...." 5 Oct 12

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[StAntKnee]

Steyn on fire!

[Hardraade]

Sesame Street is Nazi-infested.

Literally.

The illustrators infatuation with Ernst Zundel is legendary.

http://junipersec.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/obama-and-the-big-bird/

http://www.deesillustration.com/

[Edward Teach]

"And for the next debate, instead of a candidate slumped at the lectern like a muppet whose puppeteer has gone out for a smoke, maybe Elmo's guy could shove his arm up the back of the presidential suit."

I know what he wanted to say...

[TigersEye]

So far this century it's (Sesame Street) sold nigh on a billion bucks' worth of merchandising sales (that's popular toys such as the Subsidize-Me-Elmo doll). If Sesame Street is not commercially viable, then nothing is, and we should just cut to the chase and bail out everything.

Big Bird is a 1%er! I guess that makes Miss Piggie a Capitalist Pig.

[The Cajun]

Mark Steyn: Will Big Bird ever leave the government nest?

You just got to love Steyn's mind.
My favorite quote by him about Obama "He is so very small for the job".
That always resonated with me, few words, but so accurate.

[Tax-chick]

Dang, the whole piece was brilliant.

[okie01]

Those who believe it is good programming can pay to continue funding it. Hollywood celebrities who lobby congress to fund public broadcasting could afford to give a million or more if it really meant something to them.

Or, horrors, they could seek sponsors and run commercials.

Like everybody else does...

[TigersEye]

Or as J. Scott Gration, the president's Special Envoy to Sudan, said in 2009, in the most explicit Sesamization of American foreign policy: "We've got to think about giving out cookies. Kids, countries – they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes."

The butchers of Darfur aren't blood-drenched machete-wielding genocidal killers but just Cookie Monsters whom we haven't given enough cookies. I'm not saying there's a direct line between Bert & Ernie and Barack & Hillary ... well, actually, I am.

As brilliant as it is painful. 0bama is a sick joke.

[kiltie65]

Oh, if only...I were much, much younger, prettier, wittier and smart, I’d have my wicked way with Mark Steyn!

[a fool in paradise]

Cable networks have it figured out. Your monthly bill pays their networks (MTV, BET, Comedy Central, LOGO, SPIKE, Nick, VH-1 are all owned by Viacom for example) EVEN if you don’t want them and perhaps even block the programming. AND they also run advertising and get money from that stream too.

[Piranha]

As a condor, you ought to know about big birds.