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| PBS Uses Cartoon Aardvark to Plead for Continued Funding |
| 2011-02-16 |
| Life imitates Who Framed Roger Rabbit? House Democrats made their case for continuing taxpayer funding of public media outlets such as NPR and PBS with a little help from Arthur the PBS cartoon character, who visited the Capitol Wednesday morning. The friendly but silent aardvark (the transcript of his testimony will make for interesting reading) joined Democratic Reps. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and others to hit back against Republicans who have pledged to cut the funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the next budget. “We need your help today,” Markey said as a person dressed as the character walked toward the Capitol building. “We can’t leave Arthur and all of his pals in the lurch.” Arthur is--excuse me for being blunt here Mr. Markey, but this is an important point--he's a fictional character. He doesn't physically exist. He's just a series of pen-and-ink still images displayed at a rate of 24 frames per second, giving the illusion of motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement. ARTHUR IS NOT REAL! The members stood behind dolls of Sesame Street’s Big Bird, Grover and Elmo. Behind them, House aides held up signs showing Bert and Ernie being handed a letter that reads, “GOPink Slip: You are fired,” and another that showed cartoon characters being tossed away from a scale weighed down by “Big Oil.” “We’re here to create jobs, not lay off Bert and Ernie,” said Rep. Nita Lowey of New York. Nita, can I explain something to you, dear? Well, I'm going to anyway whether you like it or not. Get your fingers out of your ears and stop saying "La la la la la!" like that. That's better, dear. Here's the thing: Sesame Street is produced by an outfit called Children's Television Workshop. It's technically a not-for-profit corporation, but that doesn't mean it doesn't make money. It licenses the characters of Bert and Ernie and all the other puppets to books, video games, a friggin' 14-acre theme park, and people who make toys, clothing, training pants, furniture, murals, postcards, neckties, samplers, stained glass windows, and tattoos for all I know. These people sell BILLIONS of dollars of Sesame Street-themed merchandise every year, and CTW gets a cut of the revenue from every Bert doll, Elmo car seat, Big Bird windbreaker, Oscar the Grouch deluxe picture book, and roll of Sesame Street easy-on vinyl wallpaper--as it properly should. The only reason this stuff is in such demand is because kids watch the show and love it and ask their parents and grandparents for the tie-in merchandise. From that perspective, every hour of Sesame Street is a one-hour commercial for Sesame Street tie-in merchandise. PBS shouldn't be paying CTW for the show, CTW should be paying PBS for the airtime! |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #5 People love it, but won't pay for it directly is an oxymoron. Extortion funding for entertainment is an immoral aberration in a free country. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2011-02-16 20:03 |
| #4 No problem - directly fund CTW (of course, all Sesame Street licensing fees would then go to the US treasury). Cut Federal funding for all other NPR / PBS operations. |
| Posted by: CincinnatusChili 2011-02-16 18:33 |
| #3 It might be more appropriate to use the aardvarks from the Ant and Aardvark Pink Panther cartoon, Max Rebo, the blue aardvark from Star Wars, or Cerebus the amoral barbarian mercenary aardvark. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-02-16 18:29 |
| #2 So we're in the hole. At least Bert and Ernie have jobs. |
| Posted by: Fred 2011-02-16 18:23 |
| #1 Well, go public and run it as a for profit venture. Or at least a public service sans government funding where all the other "made possible by" funding they get is tax deductible for the corporations giving it. At very least they could break even. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2011-02-16 16:51 |
