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On his Thursday night PBS program, Charlie Rose attempted to fulfill his duties as a liberal media member by defending the State Department’s dishonest talking points following the September 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi. Rose was grilling Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who was involved in the Benghazi hearings, about his views on the matter. When Rose asked Chaffetz if he believed there was a coverup, the congressman was ready. He brought up the fact that for days after the attack, the administration claimed the incident had been sparked by a spontaneous demonstration over an anti-Islam YouTube video. But Chaffetz and...

I just saw this ad for a new PBS show called Constitution USA, which premiers this week. According to the ad, the show seeks to answer the question: "Does the Constitution have what it takes to keep up with the lives, limits and freedoms of modern America?" Judging purely by the ad, I'd say that our Constitution is in for a real shellacking at the hands of PBS. Here's an excerpt of a review of the show by Variety: Sagal (host of NPR’s “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!”) frames the discussion with a gimmick, riding across the U.S. on red,...

Keep refreshing…Beginning at 6:55pm, watch the PBS taping of a salute to Memphis Soul live from the White House right here. The actual edited show airs on Aprul 16th. The show will use Justin Timberlake as bait for the contemporary audience. But the real reasons to watch are the Stax Records stars who made it onto the lineup including Mavis Staples, Sam Moore, Booker T. Jones– who will sing, which is rare–William Bell, as well as Cyndi Lauper and Queen Latifah. Al Green was supposed to be on the show, but no one could find him. Or they found him...

Though the White House has been singing the sequester blues, the Obamas still have managed to scrape together enough cash to throw a star-studded concert celebrating "Memphis Soul" later this month. The White House announced Tuesday that the 10th concert in its "In Performance at the White House" series would go on April 16. Set to perform are Al Green, Ben Harper, Queen Latifah, Cyndi Lauper and Justin Timberlake, among many others. Though the White House last month decided to suspend official tours of the "people's house" citing the sequester, the budget cuts apparently have not impeded the concert schedule....

See PBS page.

For girls born after women were appointed to the Supreme Court, "Makers: Women Who Make America" is a history lesson. The three-hour special that airs at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, on PBS is naturally not just for younger women. It is for everyone — those who relished victories whenever women won higher office, experienced fury when colleagues made sexual advances or were frustrated when schools allocated money only for boys sports. It's for males and females — those who suffered the indignities and fought to change the world and those for whom the ERA is only a baseball stat....

So Downton Abbey‘s message is an anti-class warfare one. The fact is that the spirit of the critics is hard left, and maybe that’s why Downton Abbey makes them so angry, because the success of the series shows that this group does not speak for America. It also shows something equally important to the future of our culture: that there is no inherent need for good TV to be left of center. Stories sympathetic to virtue, preservation of property and admiration of nobility and of wealth can be told beautifully and to wide audiences, and I suspect they will be...

On February 1, 2003, seven astronauts on board Space Shuttle Columbia died during re-entry as they returned to Earth from the STS-107 mission. Friday was the 10th anniversary of the disaster, but none of the Big Three networks morning newscasts marked this somber occasion. ABC's Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and NBC's Today understandably devoted considerable broadcast time to the upcoming Super Bowl on Sunday. However, this coverage contained segments to frivolous, celebrity-driven stories that could have been whittled down to air even a mere brief on the anniversary of the tragedy. Here are examples from each morning show:...

these two video clips prove difi's goals are to confiscate all guns. she lied recenty on pbs, and an interview regarding her 1994 attempt proves she lied. this is exactly what they want. she admits it was her goal all along. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k3DKuN2ey80&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dk3DKuN2ey80%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded

<p>A fourth accuser is coming forward to claim he engaged in underage sex with former "Sesame Street" puppeteer Kevin Clash.</p> <p>On Monday, Florida-based attorney Jeff Herman filed his third lawsuit alleging that Clash, now 52, engaged in sex with minors. Herman also has filed suits on behalf of two of the previous three accusers.</p>

The PBS NewsHour has yet to invite a strong conservative on the program to talk about the fiscal cliff. Tuesday night they had New York Times columnist, left-wing economist, and Obama cheerleader Paul Krugman to detail his view. Wednesday night they had moderately-conservative Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn), but last night was the most interesting. PBS invited the Norquist of the left, Max Richtman, of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, who insisted we shouldn’t be in a rush to reform our entitlement spending. After all, when the unfunded liability of both programs is around $100 trillion, what’s...

A second man has come forward saying he had sex with Kevin Clash, the voice of “Sesame Street” character Elmo, when the accuser was a teenage minor, according to a report. -snip- Cecil Singleton, who is now in his 30s, said he and Clash hooked up on a gay phone sex line in 1993 when he was 15 and the muppeteer was 32, according to a new $5 million lawsuit reported by TMZ. Singleton said Clash “trolled” phone sex lines to meet boys and wooed him with gifts of cash and fancy dinners, the lawsuit said, according to TMZ. Clash...

The man who voices the puppet of Elmo on Sesame Street has taken leave amid allegations he had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy. Kevin Clash, 52, has taken a leave of absence from the popular children's show after the programme's lawyers were contacted by a 23-year-old man who claims he had a sexual relationship with the puppeteer seven years ago, when he was aged 16. TMZ, who reported the allegations, said that Mr Clash had admitted he had a relationship with the man, but only after the accuser was an adult and said the accusations were both false...

Tourists in downtown Washington, D.C. may have been confused by a small, colorful gathering on the mall on Saturday, as a group of activists came together for the “Million Puppet March” with a message of government support for PBS. While the Count may have been disappointed – the assembled crowd for this million-strong march was a few hundred at most – the activists in their cobbled-together homemade costumes did their best. Big Bird, Grover and the Wild Things took pictures with fans in a sea of Obama/Biden signs and ‘Puppets Unite!’ posters. For anyone walking to the Smithsonian museums, they...

Bring your favorite puppet 11/3 to Lincoln Park, Washington DC at 10am ET with a march to Capitol Reflecting Pool by 1:00pm ET for rally.

In August, I blasted the Commission on Presidential Debate’s choices of three Beltway lib journo-tools — CNN’s Candy Crowley, PBS’s Jim Lehrer and CBS’s Bob Schieffer. So far, they’ve acted just as expected and predicted. As I noted: While the debate panel trumpeted the gender diversity of its picks, the chromosomal diversity is far outweighed by the political uniformity, class conformity and geographical homogeneity of the group. ... The presidential debates are the last bastion of “mainstream” media self-delusion in the 21st century. They are a ritual laughingstock for tens of millions of American viewers who have put up with...

When the evening began, one observation dominated the conversation: “If President Barack Obama has another debate like the last one, the election’s over.” When the evening ended, I was struck by a different thought: If Obama had performed this way at the first debate, the election would have been over. In every debate, whatever the format, whatever the questions, there is one and only one way to identify the winner: Who commands the room? Who drives the narrative? Who is in charge? More often than not on Tuesday night, I think, Obama had the better of it.

Here is a 90 second video that basically shuts down all argument about whether or not Big Bird (ie Sesame Street) needs Federal Funding. Watch the Video Here

Mitt Romney’s now infamous pledge to eliminate federal funding for PBS despite his affection for Big Bird and Jim Lehrer is getting still more pushback. Today a Los Angeles animation exec and an Idaho student are planning a 'Million Muppet March' for November 3rd at the National Mall in Washington DC three days before the election. Reuters reports Animax’s Michael Bellavia and student Chris Mecham came up with the idea separately during the October 3rd debate. Bellavia bought the Internet address www.millionmuppetmarch.com and discovered Mecham already had the Facebook page. The two fans of Sesame Street connected before the debate...

I’ve not heard so much talk about Big Bird and Sesame Street since I was six years old! Ever since the first presidential debate this year, when Mitt Romney mentioned Big Bird, with reference to his desire to pull funding for PBS, something about the big yellow bird has been in the news on a daily basis. Now it looks like some “bird brain” has come up with a wacky idea to march on Washington, D.C., in support of Big Bird, on November 3, just three days before the election. Though Romney’s call for stripping subsidizing of PBS only really...

Kid Rock: "You are a Communist" Sean Penn: "You are a red-neck" It gets better.......

Two pubcasting fans in different cities who separately conceived plans for a “Million Muppet March” in support of public broadcasting have teamed up to try to organize the event on Nov. 3 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Michael Bellavia, 42, of Los Angeles, and Chris Mecham, 46, of Boise, Idaho, were watching the presidential debate on Oct. 3 when Republican nominee Mitt Romney said that he would end subsidies to PBS if elected. Even before the debate ended, Bellavia had secured the URL millionmuppetmarch.com, and Mecham created the Million Muppet March Facebook page. “We just merged the two...

(Reuters) - Plans to save Big Bird, the fuzzy yellow character on U.S. public television's "Sesame Street," from possible extinction are taking shape in the form of a puppet-based protest next month dubbed the "Million Muppet March." The demonstration is planned for November 3 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., three days before the general election. Before the presidential debate between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney had concluded on October 3, two men who had never met each floated the Million Muppet March idea on social media. They immediately united to defend public broadcasting. Romney...

Dennis Miller joins Bill O'Reilly to lend his perspective on the upcoming Vice Presidential debate between Paul Ryan and Joe Biden along with comments on the big bird controversy

The rambling incoherence of the people who write editorials for the Virginian Pilot has broken through the bounds of time and space to finally arrive in a completely new universe. A universe where the $430 million government subsidy to PBS is actually nothing, nada, zero. A universe where NOT SPENDING $430 million that we don’t have will have NO EFFECT on the federal deficit! Don’t believe me? Allow me to quote two lines from this editorial that is so mind-blowingly stupid that reading it will make destroy your brain cells: "Public broadcasting has nothing to do with the federal deficit....

As prominent Democrat Dick Harpootlian put it, "Big Bird is iconic. He — or it — she — I don’t know what it is — is an icon with a whole generation or two of Americans." Well said. If Mitt Romney won't stand up for giant muppets, who will he stand up for?If we're destined for heartbreak on election night, my friends, let these words be our solace: A lawyer for Sesame Workshop has requested that the campaign take down the spot, which was slated to run on national cable outlets.“We have received that request,” [Obama spokesman Jen] Psaki told...

Put this another way. When your campaign strategy loses Matt Lauer, Chris Matthews Bob Shrum, and earns four Pinocchios from the Washington Post, where exactly does that leave you? In a fine, feathered mess, that’s where. Lauer interviewed Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs this morning on Today, and asked, “Is that the kind of political ad that a campaign releases when it feels that it has ideas and solutions on its side, or is that the kind of political ad a campaign releases when it simply wants to get attention?” As if on cue, Gibbs insists that Mitt Romney declared...

The Obama campaign apparently is being run by a humor-deficient would-be Jon Stewart: On Tuesday, it launched an ill-advised attempt at snark in an advertisement featuring Big Bird. How bad was the ad? Even the yellow fellow himself was embarrassed, and Sesame Workshop, the multimillion-dollar enterprise with the $1 million–a–year president behind Sesame Street, asked that the ad be taken down. Even President Obama’s amen corner in the media was aghast: ABC News’ Terry Moran pronounced it the work of a campaign “in panic mode.” Somebody should remind Barack Obama that he is, for the moment, president of the United...

Try and stick to the issues, LOSER! ___________________________________________ RNC   h/t American Thinker

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This is Dennis, Covington, Louisiana. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hi. CALLER: Hey, Rush. I guess the new narrative is that conservatives want to kill Big Bird. Well, we have witnessed decades of toy, merchandising, movie theater revenues that have to amount to the hundreds of millions, which would put Big Bird up there with Bill Gates. So to subsidize Big Bird, isn't that the epitome of tax cuts for the rich? RUSH: Try this. Sesame Street received a million-dollar grant from the stimulus bill, and they reported that it created 1.47 jobs. This...

-snip- According to financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2011, Sesame Workshop and its nonprofit and for-profit subsidiaries had total operating revenue of more than $134 million. They receive about $8 million a year in direct government grants and more indirectly via PBS subsidies. Big Bird and friends also receive corporate and foundation support, and donations amount to about a third of revenue. Distribution fees and royalties comprise another third and licensing revenue makes up the rest. At the end of fiscal 2011, Sesame Workshop and its subsidiaries had total assets of $289 million. About $29 million was...

I see Frontline is doing "an in-depth analysis that goes far beyond headlines and catchphrases, correspondents take a look at presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in order to highlight what drives them and to reveal their true natures." If they trash Romney people will shrug their shoulders and say 'what do you expect from a bunch of leftist a-holes.' If they come short of trashing Romney people will accuse them of pandering to Romney to preserve their subsidy. In short they can't win. If the good folks at PBS had an ounce of integrity they wouldn't take another...

Sesame Street asks Obama campaign to take down attack ad featuring Big Bird By Daniel Strauss - 10/09/12 04:58 PM ET Sesame Street has asked President Obama's campaign to take down its latest attack ad against Mitt Romney, which features footage of Big Bird.

 "Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns," a Tuesday statement on Sesameworkshop.org reads. "We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down." The Obama campaign said it would review the request. "We've received and...

Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down.

October 9, 2012 Sesame Street asks Obama campaign to take down Big Bird ad Daniel Strauss Sesame Street wants President Obama's campaign to take down its latest attack ad against Mitt Romney, which features footage of Big Bird. "Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns," a Tuesday statement on Sesameworkshop.org reads. "We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down."The Obama campaign said it would review the request. "We've received and will review their concerns," said an Obama...

More than a dozen American diplomatic missions have been put to the torch over the last month, one of which resulted in the first US Ambassador killed in the line of duty in 33 years. The labor force is near its lowest level in more than 30 years. Gas prices have skyrocketed, and we’re at war in Afghanistan. We are exactly four weeks from the national election. Today, however, Barack Obama will release a new 30-second spot focusing on the true issue that faces our nation …. Big Bird?CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Even Politico can see the contrasts...

Mitt Romney has done it now. He has attacked the Left where it lives -- on PBS and NPR. Mass-attending Catholics rightly perceive that President Obama launched a direct attack on their church. Their bishops have informed them. Evangelicals and other people of faith have mobilized to support Catholics against the Obamacare regulations that will oblige Catholic hospitals, schools and human welfare agencies to close rather than provide the morning-after pill, sterilization, and other drugs and procedures prohibited by Catholic doctrine. Catholics are angry, and they will vote that anger in key swing states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, Virginia, Iowa...

First, I don't know where to even send a suggestion like this. Any ideas? The ad: Big Bird walks past people protesting Romney's claim that PBS funding should be cut. Signs argue that without public funding, American children wouldn't experience Sesame Street. He goes into a parking deck, where he gets in a red Ferrari. As the engine roars, titles overlaying the screen would read: "Sesame Street receives [however much funding] a year from the federal government. In that same time, Sesame Street makes more than $50 million in toys and consumer sales." They could add a guy working in...

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...

Before Mitt Romney said he was going to stop the subsidy to PBS, even though he likes Big Bird, at the first presidential debate, Sherrie Westin, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Sesame Workshop, told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien that cuts to public broadcasting will not ‘kill Big Bird.’ Westin says, “Sesame Workshop receives very, very little funding from PBS. So, we are able to raise our funding through philanthropic, through our licensed product, which goes back into the educational programming, through corporate underwriting and sponsorship. So quite frankly, you can debate whether or not there should be funding of...

PBS CEO Paula Kerger refused to defend PBS host Jim Lehrer’s debate performance, even failing to push back against the idea that Lehrer is too old and too white for the job. “It was a very complicated debate structure, and you saw that I think in the debate last night,” Kerger said yesterday on CNN when asked to evaluate Lehrer. CNN’s Carol Costello then asked whether Lehrer should have had the job in the first place. “There was criticism when Jim Lehrer was initially named to be a moderator. People said: ‘oh, another white guy; he’s too old to be...

Romney's stated policies in business during the first presidential debate: champion the growth and development for the middle class. Until now, Romney's position was widely perceived as one of the biggest enemies to the middle class. One of his most powerful moments during the debate was the contrast he illustrated between the president’s decision to finance the five big banks, while allowing small banks to fail across America. Some credit should be given to the president, however, for his short-term policies to save the banks, and the wise business decision to make interest from the banks that were save through...

Mitt Romney sure ruffled a lot of feathers over his proposal to eliminate taxpayer funding for government-sponsored TV. As soon as the GOP presidential candidate singled out PBS for cuts during the presidential debate in Denver, the hysterical squawking commenced. Left-leaning celebrities immediately erupted on Twitter. “WOW!!! No PBS!! WTF how about cutting congress’s stuff leave big bird alone,” Whoopi Goldberg fumed. “Mitt is smirky, sweaty, indignant and smug with an unsettling hint of hysteria. And he wants to kill BIG BIRD,” actress Olivia Wilde despaired. “Who picks on Big Bird!!! #bulliesthatswho,” actress Taraji Henson chimed in. Social-media activists called...

I am elated to report to you something you surely already know: Mitt Romney trounced President Obama in their first debate. The rout was so decisive that even the liberal media cannot spin it the other way. There is no need to grade this on a curve. Romney did very well in absolute, not relative, terms. He didn't just do well compared with Obama's poor performance; he really shone, in every category. He proved himself to be very knowledgeable on policy and business, quick on his feet and able to deliver zingers as graciously as possible under the circumstances. Obama,...

Long-time PBS anchor Jim Lerher was arrested today after being connected with an inflammatory broadcast which has incited verbal violence and unrest throughout the United States and Europe. The broadcast, which appeared unexpectedly over many US television stations, superficially seems to be a debate between US president Barack Obama and an unnamed other person, possibly the president's debate coach John Kerry. However, the incendiary and invidious intent of the presentation soon makes itself obvious. Mr. Lerher, who appears in the role of moderator, continually allows the opponent to berate and insult the president by citing the latter's record as chief...

Colorado presidential debate: Media piles on moderator Jim Lehrer By: Mackenzie Weinger October 4, 2012 01:18 AM EDT The loser of Wednesday night’s debate, according to many pundits and political commentators? Moderator Jim Lehrer. Lehrer, the executive editor of PBS Newshour, sat behind the desk for the 12th time in the history of televised presidential debates on Wednesday night — and drew some of the most blistering reviews of his career. The consensus: Lehrer did not control the debate, failed to enforce the time limits, did not press the candidates enough and generally was steamrolled by the presidential candidates, Mitt...

A landmark transmedia project featuring a four-hour PBS primetime national and international broadcast event (check local listings), a Facebook-hosted social action game, mobile games, two websites, educational video modules with companion text, a social media campaign supporting over 30 partner NGOs, and an impact assessment plan all inspired by Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, the widely acclaimed book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide was filmed in 10 countries and follows Kristof, WuDunn, and celebrity activists America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle...

Notorious PBS liberal Gwen Ifill took to Twitter to defend David Chalian, the former Yahoo Washington bureau chief who was fired for claiming that Mitt and Ann Romney are "happy to have a party with black people drowning," claiming that he was unjustly fired. Her defense was markedly over-the-top: "One mistake does not change this. @DavidChalian is God's gift to political journalism. #IStandwithDavid" One wonders if the always liberal Ifill would have said a conservative journalist who had been fired was "God's gift to political journalism." Actually one really doesn't. Hat tip: Clay Waters. Incidentally, Ifill is said to have...

Floyd Corkins, a volunteer for the last six months at the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community, marched into the Family Research Center with a gun and serious ammunition, denounced FRC's policy positions and shot a security guard in the arm before being subdued. Another hate crime, but this time against, perhaps, the pre-eminent pro-family organization in America. CBS gave the story 20 seconds. NBC spent 17 seconds. Imagine a volunteer for the Family Research Council marching into some gay group's headquarters with a gun, and after shouting his opposition to the homosexual agenda, opened fire and wounded a guard...

I admire the many faith-based organizations in this country that provide services to those who are homeless or hungry or substance abusers or unwed moms or domestic violence victims or ex-convicts or others who need loving-kindness. But I especially appreciate the work of Christian missionaries. Those who have accepted the Great Commission set forth by Christ before he ascended to the Father: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” Jack...