LeVar Burton is not happy with Romney

For saying he'd cut PBS funding

Published October 5, 2012 4:59PM (EDT)

       (Wikipedia)
(Wikipedia)

First Big Bird and the Sesame Street gang were gunning for Mitt Romney, and now he's also on the wrong side of the "Reading Rainbow."

LeVar Burton, the host of "Reading Rainbow" (and star of the Roots mini-series), said he's "outraged" that Romney said he would cut funding for PBS as part of federal spending cuts. "I'm sorry, Jim. I'm gonna stop the subsidy to PBS," Romney told debate moderator Jim Lehrer. "I'm gonna stop other things. I like PBS, I like Big Bird, I actually like you too."

“I am personally outraged that any serious contender for the White House would target as part of his campaign the children of America in this fashion,” said Burton.

"Educators across the country, as well as millions of children and adults know that the programming on PBS has been responsible for significant improvements in education, literacy, math, science and life skills for generations of our children," he said.

PBS funding amounts to about 0.012 percent of federal spending, as astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson pointed out in a tweet on Wednesday:

[embedtweet id="253680452240547840"]


By Jillian Rayfield

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com.

MORE FROM Jillian Rayfield


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2012 Elections 2012 Presidential Debates Big Bird Levar Burton Mitt Romney Pbs