Elmo Not So Tickled: Million Puppet March Rallies for PBS and Sesame Street Following Mitt Romney's Proposed Budget Cuts

Protesters dressed in furry outfits and carrying muppet characters hit the National Mall this past weekend to express solidarity with the TV station

By Josh Grossberg Nov 05, 2012 3:00 PMTags
President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Million Puppet MarchNICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

As Kermit the Frog will tell you, it's not easy being green—let alone working for public broadcasting these days.

Over a thousand people turned out for the so-called Million Puppet March at the National Mall on Sunday to defend PBS and express support for continued funding of programs like Sesame Street as well as National Public Radio.

Nobody messes with Big Bird, bub.

The marchers, many of whom were puppeteers, brought along their favorite Sesame Street puppets and chanted slogans like, "El-mo! We won't go!," "Whose street? Sesame Street!" and "What do we want? Cookies! When do we want them? Now!"

The goal of the protest was to raise awareness about the importance of PBS and push back against Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who remarked during the first presidential debate last month that he would end all federal subsidies to PBS if elected president to help cut the deficit.

"I like PBS, I love Big Bird, I actually like you, too," Romney told moderator Jim Lehrer, "but I am not going to keep spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for."

Given PBS makes up 0.012 percent of the federal budget, that didn't go over well with animation executive Michael Bellavia and Idaho university student Chris Mecham, who organized the pep rally.

In a mission statement posted on Facebook, the two wrote: "We believe in public media. We believe that a strong public broadcasting system builds a stronger nation. And we believe that it is essential to provide adequate federal funding to our public broadcasters."

No doubt even Oscar the Grouch would agree.