In NYC the biggest ad, non ads are from chavez's oil company, Cuba 's national orchestra , .. Soros gave gazillions too .. They don't need our taxes for this red diaper indoctrinating...

Steyn outdoes himself....and that's not easy to do .

I nominate for tomorrow's lead must read!

Mr. Steyn, as to your last sentence and analogy: If someone had just put a stick up his backside as a puppeteer is sure to do, it might have been a more animated debate.

Mark make a really good point. If you do not have the will to tackle the little stuff, then how are you ever going to take on the big stuff.
Hey, at least Boehner got 2 billion in cuts the first debt extension negation, they kinda folded on the second.

Mark, please tell us....where the hurl did you gain the intelligence to write this stuff. Is it the product of a severely twisted "in a nice way" mind? As we anxiously await more, please tell us the secret...many of us want to pass it on to our children!
This has to be one of the best Steyn columns I've ever read...I can't stop the tears from laughing so freakin' hard.

The Children's Television workshop, which produces Sesame Street, makes millions of dollars from licensing their characters for toys, trinkets, dolls, etc.
Not one dime goes back to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American Taxpayers, or the American Taxpayers themselves.

CTW has earned hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. They ought to be paying their own way.

We laughed so hard that tears began to flow!
Spot on!

There's a Sesame Place theme park in Pennsylvania - all the Sesame Street characters appear on the website and in the advertisements.

Even if it's not run by the same folks who do Sesame Street on PBS ... they're probably getting quite a cut for licensing the characters, theme, etc.

Bright yellow Big Bird is, in reality, a large turkey buzzard chick. It will feast upon the carcass of what used to be America, and we are stupid enough to feed it!

Go Mark. So true about if GOP hasn't been able to gather the courage to even get PBS out of our pocketbooks, it's wishful thinking they will do half of what they now promise.

I have a feeling Mitt will cut a whole lot more sacred stuff than Big Bird. There is no way we should be borrowing money from China to pay for Sesame St. or the Arts or anything else that is not a necessity. Mitt's the MAN!

Only puppets back government control of PBS and NPR. Time to cut the strings!

Mark Steyn is Canada's great gift to us.
Although, he seems to have kept that endearing accent.

PBS and NPR have said they do not need federal money. They have those telethon thingies anyway and the disguised corporate ads.
Why would we borrow money from China to give to super-rich Big Bird and Jim Lehrer anyway?

"...the listless sourpuss staring at his shoes." YES! Best description ever of Obama at the debate.

I'm surprised that Moochelle hasn't attacked Cookie Monster yet!

I say, flip the bird off the public payroll. He's worth millions, maybe even billions.

Furthermore, PBS programs are NOT commercial-free: before and after there are the "Brought to you by..." spots. We see law firms, various very large companies/corporations and the like, bringing us a variety of programs. No doubt, they also help to pay the very large salaries the executives make.

I don't begrudge the salaries, just the fact that we are subsidizing them.

Time to let the Bird fly out of the Public Nest.

I love Mark Steyn even more for loathing SS. I do too. I NEVER let my children watch it and asked friends and family to NOT give them SS toys as gifts.

It appeals to short attention spans rather than helping to develop patience. It constantly rewards bad behavior ( a gluttonous cookie thief and a snotty, dirty sourpuss who lives in garbage are beloved characters that kids like to emulate.) Even Bert and Ernie played mean tricks on each other. The list goes on, but I won't.

A lot of folks have given me grief for hating on SS. It's very validating to know that one of the smartest, wittiest people in the world agrees with me!

Who gives a rats about big bird when you still really be worried about Bozo Barack the Clown!

Michael Medved, who worked at PBS during his movie critic days, said over a decade ago that PBS does a horrible job managing their $$ & could easily support themselves. Thank you Steyn!

Our LSM will harp on this Big Bird thing until the next gotcha/blooper/hidden-camera-at-a-fundraiser comes along. I'm grateful to have Steyn's headline for a comeback!

I know PBS is always crowing about how Big Bird and Sesame Street educate kids, but has anyone at SS noticed that the educational level of kids has dropped down a hole since SS came on TV? It has totally dumbed down our kids.

Wow! '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.'

Romney should pledge to cut at least 10% per year over his four from the White House operation budget. Cut the imperial extravagance that would make King Tut blush, starting with the imperial air fleet, imperial food preparation staff, floral, lawn care, right down the line, including the off budget "military" support.

Good reference to Zippy's muppets like ValJar.

It's not like this is the first time defunding PBS has come up. To hear the comments, it's like there is no one on PBS but Big Bird.

How about where those SS toys are made ? Taxpayers are not only paying the bird, but workers in China.

FTA:*Unlike Mitt, I loathe Sesame Street. .... That is not unrelated to the infantilization of our society. Marinate three generations of Americans in that pabulum, and it's no surprise you wind up with unprotected diplomats dragged to their deaths from their "safe house" in Benghazi.*

We weren't raised w/ any of this stuff. I found it rather shocking that other parents let their children learn from a garish yellow puppet that would scare me out of 3 years growth.
I learnt from my parents, and from the Great Books--editions printed at the turn of the century [the last century]--which Dad shoved under my nose for the learning of English: the Bible, Don Quijote, the Song of Roland, Irish fairytales, Russian fairytales, Yeats, Dickens, Lewis Carroll.
Celebrate diversity!
Thusly, I travelled in time, as well as space.
Biff! Bam! Take that, yellow bird!!

SS is a massive propaganda mechanism. We are fools.

Hilarious....One more important point...I learned way more about life watching Tom and Jerry than Bird.

We plan on giving the Choom Wagon Kid the 'big bird' in the voting booth this November.

Y'all don't understand: PBS licenses these characters and keeps the money because that's their money. Then they need more money from ''contributors'' (read: ''taxpayers'') because they won't spend their money, just ours.

This is the best Steyn piece ever. Chock full of gut-busting laughs. Reading this in a hotel lobby, must maintain composure...

Spot on Mark!!

You nailed it!!

LZK

I love Mark Steyn. People (some) are jumping on Romney's Big Bird thing... some libs are pointing out that funding of this is a drop in the bucket. I've always resented PBS and NPR receiving federal funding. NPR is totally liberal and the announcers train by commenting on golf, using those soft serious voices. And a hundred or so drops might just fill a bucket.

Steyn should be considered one of the wonders of the world.

Loved Styne's reference to ValJar's muppet Obama, the Empty Suit.

Made me cry cause he shouting reality at us, but will we hold the next President accountable to cutting waste? Haven't we "demanded" that from everybody since Reagan? I pray that the "teaparties" stay active for that is our hope and prayer for this country. Informed involvement sans Obama phones. What Mitt said, it's 2 idealisms and one is going to sink us. Big Bird, meet bus. Thank you Mark for consistantly speaking the truth.

I don't like Sesame Street because it pushes the idea that learning should be fun and that this message comes from television. Kids take their cues from TV at an early age and are hooked on its message, a message controlled by those who would later on ply your children and young adults with even more harmful messages.
Learning should not, as a condition, be fun. Its work, not play. Unfortunately, as kids grew up and became parents of next generation Sesame Street watchers, the expectation of fun has moved from the work of the classroom to the work of life. Now you have college graduates who sit in their own filth at OWS sites because they have $200K college debt for their graphic performance art degree and can't find work because the work they "studied for" isn't capable of paying them to continue to have fun.

I agree on the "little things". Something Boehner needs to learn. Great article from Mr Steyn, as usual.

man, Steyn is superb.
I also realized a long time ago that PBS, Sesame St, etc is a joke.
loved the comment about Garrison Keillor.

Go Mitt!!

US tax dollars may be nothing more than a drop in the bucket.....BUT they helped to pay Juan Williams salary did they not? that was before he moved to Fox

This Christmas' hotest toy: Subsidize me Elmo~

Addt'l note, re: #36. What happens when the Congress/Government announces cuts to whatever? Often some and sometimes many of the People begin to squeal, "Oooch! Ouch! oh that hurts! Take that, but not this!"

The only way birds will fly out of the nest is when the ADULT bird pushes them out, and they're forced to spread their wings and fend for themselves.

Big Bird's underbelly is full of sharp pinfeathers
of socialism. Who knew?

LDot mods. Ldotters. Most Republicans but not all.

Growing up, "channel 13" used to bring programming that we wouldn't get on the regular networks. Now, PBS and NPR are non-stop shills for liberals, democrats and global warming. My tax dollars are funding the opposition. Not only that, they are making tons of money on their own. It's high time to kick them off the government teat.

Romney's excellent test (worth borrowing money from China to pay for) is a test that all government programs and federal workers should take in 2013.

Big Bird OUGHT to be defunded. He's a multi-millionaire in his own right. After 30 years of Big Bird lunchboxes, Big Bird sippy cups, Big Bird Backpacks, Big Bird coloring books, Big Bird tee shirts, Big Bird jammies, Big Bird videos, and a Big Bird this, and a Big Bird that ... Let's face it -- that puppet has made more money than George Soros. Big Bird could underwrite PBS all on his own.

Why is it that the only corporation liberals love is the "Corporation for Public Broadcasting?"
Don't they understand that Socialist Street needs to pay back their 'student' loans now? It's time to end the subsidies and make them go on their own, especially since the CPB eviscerated a conservative Bush appointee and forced him to resign. CPB clearly has the extremely sharp teeth of a vicious unionista bureaucracy.

When I was growing up, there was no Sesame Street or Big Bird, and not much television either. We did watch "Mr. Ed" and "The Wonderful World of Disney", when Disney movies did not insult the intelligence of child or adult (who can ever forget "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh"?). My youngest brother did not watch Sesame Street either, and instead read the encyclopedia and dictionary.

What I do remember is listening to Ethel Barrett, the storyteller on the Christian radio station KTIS in MN, narrate Bible stories in her own, unique way. Look her up. You can still find a few recordings of her. Now I can say with all confidence that my definition of a deprived childhood is a childhood without Ethel Barrett. And that's the truth! :-)

Sesame Street and Big Bird sell so much licensed crap, they could easily fund the entire PBS network. So, where's all that money ?

Not often do Ldotters pay such high compliments to the writers of good ideas.
Mark Steyn, aggressive, funny, Valerie Jaret with body guards, gangster Panetta with a private jet each weekend, Garrison Keilor down the toilet, Socialist Street up ended, half million annual to small time public broadcasting employee, paid by Communists. Thanks to the old time Freedom Newspapers founder R.C Hoiles and the newer founder Lucianne Goldberg of lucianne.com, the New Media is bursting thru the dam of totalitarian Old Media. The good news is we're getting more bad news !!
The "back room" is turning into the sun room
Mark is marvelous, worth reading these stark images twice, AND passing on this article to all of each of our believers and non believers. THIS is the kind of writing that will get through to the knuckleheads who want big government to control their lives. Mark is a valiant warrior of words.

While Sesame Street is not the most assinine piece of trash that PBS inflicts on the public (that distinction goes to anything done by Bill Moyers), it definitely deserves to be deleted from the public consciousness ASAP. I strenuously object to spending my hard earned money on this far left bastion of idiocy.

The tax return for NPR was posted on line for '09. They had one interesting revenue line of $115,000,000. Thatws for radio sations sold iirc-I was looking thru the return.
So there wre a number of $300K salaries.
And I read that the universities systems pay 25-35% of NPR tab. It is really labyrhinthine how much dough is expended.
but I have an idea- the people that want it can PAY for it. Or they can sell ads.

PBS used to have some excellent shows in the old days. There were concerts and documentaries you couldn't find anywhere else at the time. In the earlier days there was even more of ideological balance. However, over the years it turned more and more into a propaganda machine for leftist ideology only. Sesame Street was one of those shows that started on the left and moved even further left over time. I could see it even in my youth (though I was a bit older than the ones it was geared to). I guess it helped that I knew about ideological differences at a young age. Anyway, I LOVE Mark Steyn and always hated the androgynous and immature Big Bird.

The big yellow bird needs to go but my choice of the first to be drug whining and wimpering up the scaffold is the wh resident queen 0blo the bower.and it's dimfecal chi-thugs.
Approved by the Environmentally Friendly Guillotine Ole'factory
We offer fun, rapid, timely, and permanent solutions.

A navel gazing moment, but an awakening that indeed, if pushed, quite possibly, even maybe, they could survive, they hope. Tears were no doubt shed, massage circles, and group hugs, prayers to mother Gaia, and evil Republicans were cursed during the writing of the following June 2012 report...

http://cpb.org/aboutcpb/Alternative_Sources_of_Funding_for_Public_Broadcasting_Stations.pdf

There is a rich bank of self relevant back-patting throughout this drivel with quotes such as:

"The American public clearly believes that federal funding is an appropriate, effective and valued use of their tax dollars. Overwhelmingly, the public believes that federal funding for public broadcasting is money well spent and the best value for America‘s tax dollars, second only to national defense"

Ha. There's more, you just have to suffer through it...pablum for the NPR masses.

Liberals just never hear the words "debt" and "borrowing from china" the same way the grown ups do!

BIG Bird and those that created it have been scamming the American taxpayer for years...a typical Lib shell game.

As soon as they were viable on their own they should have been forceably removed from the Teet!

Gosh - reading this Thread is as educational as reading Steyn's dense and thoughtful article. My recommendation: don't rush through it.

And Steyn's article is a Master's degree dissecting the corporation called the Public Broadcasting Service.

Double dittos to what #17 said: "Furthermore, PBS programs are NOT commercial-free: before and after there are the "Brought to you by..." spots. We see law firms, various very large companies/corporations and the like, bringing us a variety of programs."

My recommendation when Romney wins: Do a complete and PUBLIC audit of PBS - including all income from the sale of Big Bird (etc.) merchandise sales, salaries of all staff (since they work for We the People), and then expose all who have made donations, and how much they have given, and where the money has gone.

Methinks there is public tax $$$$ being frittered away.

PS: I love Masterpiece Theater, and all things British being aired on PBS.