Salon.com > Big Bird http://www.salon.com Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:17:28 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 17 best excuses for Romney’s defeat http://www.salon.com/2012/11/08/seventeen_best_excuses_romneys_defeat/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/08/seventeen_best_excuses_romneys_defeat/#comments Thu, 08 Nov 2012 19:26:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13066501 The Weeklings
 GOT SEVENTEEN EXCUSES for losing, but being a mendacious, flip-flopping, misogynistic, morally-bankrupt super-millionaire who made a fortune outsourcing American jobs, isn’t one of them.

What happened to the Mittmentum? It’s Mitt-diculous! Did Hurricane Sandy blow Benghazi out of the water? Was it the economy? Was it a case of Bin Laden-is-dead-and-Chevy-is-alive? Was it Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Who Doesn’t Want the Government in her Vagina?

Here are just a few of the excuses why, according to the GOP, Lord Mittens will not be the next president of the United States:

1.  Someone forgot to block off the wheelchair ramps in Ohio.

2.  It’s not Mitt Romney’s fault that racism just isn’t as fashionable as it used to be. What’s next? Petticoats? Butter churns? Blood-letting?

3.  No one could have anticipated that single mothers (the ones whose children Mitt blames for all the gun violence in this country) owned shoes with such good arch support they could wait in line for nine hours to vote.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/08/seventeen_best_excuses_romneys_defeat/feed/ 27 What makes a meme http://www.salon.com/2012/10/28/what_makes_a_meme/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/28/what_makes_a_meme/#comments Sun, 28 Oct 2012 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13054427 Biden-laughs and Ryan-abs, Big Birds and binders and bayonets: There is something fascinating when an event as stodgily ceremonial as the presidential campaign is run through the lulz-filter of social media, secreting a hallucination of phrases and images and videos and, of course, gifs. An army is at the ready to spin off a gag at every turn, to propagate the joke to maximum scope; digital arpeggiations of candidate goofs and campaign blunders are transmitted from host to host through a mere caress of the touch-sensitive screen. Watching debates with that second screen of fast-moving social media streams and text-input boxes begging our thoughts has positioned many of us as hunters for the most shareable, memeiest content, ready to pounce at something, anything, and in the process, changing the overall narrative of an event. We’ve developed a kind of meme literacy, a habit of intuiting in real time the potential virality of a speech act — to hear retweets inside words.

The New Inquiry

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/28/what_makes_a_meme/feed/ 3 Puppet march planned in D.C. to defend PBS funding http://www.salon.com/2012/10/17/puppet_march_planned_in_d_c_to_defend_pbs_funding/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/17/puppet_march_planned_in_d_c_to_defend_pbs_funding/#comments Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:22:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13043470 WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 1,000 puppeteers and public broadcasting supporters have signed on for a march on the National Mall in Washington three days before the election.

The so-called Million Puppet March being planned online is scheduled for Nov. 3. By Wednesday morning, more than 1,000 participants had responded on Facebook, saying they would attend.

It comes after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's remarks during a presidential debate calling for the elimination of funding for PBS, which airs the popular children's show "Sesame Street."

Organizers originally called the event a Million Muppet March. But they note that they've changed the name to include sock puppets, hand puppets, marionettes, shadow puppets and mascots.

___

Million Puppet March: http://millionpuppetmarch.com/

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/17/puppet_march_planned_in_d_c_to_defend_pbs_funding/feed/ 2 Must-see morning clip http://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/must_see_morning_clip_40/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/must_see_morning_clip_40/#comments Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:02:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13035687 Jimmy Fallon squeezes even more humor out of Mitt Romney's  anti-PBS comment by reimagining "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" as "Mister Romney's Neighborhood." Watch and learn, instead, from Mister Rogers' avuncular but miserly, er, cousin:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/must_see_morning_clip_40/feed/ 10 Quote of the day: Big Bird bites back http://www.salon.com/2012/10/09/quote_of_the_day_big_bird_bites_back/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/09/quote_of_the_day_big_bird_bites_back/#comments Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:17:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13035153 Even the Obama campaign has capitalized on Romney's "Big Bird" comment during last week's presidential debate, coming out today with an ad depicting Big Bird as a corrupt business executive. “Mitt Romney knows it isn’t Wall Street you need to worry about, it’s Sesame Street," says the narrator in a foreboding tone.

But the real Big Bird isn't amused. The Sesame Workshop released the following statement in response to the character's appearance in any type of campaign ad:

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.

As of 4:55 PM, the video is still on Obama for America's YouTube channel, however:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/09/quote_of_the_day_big_bird_bites_back/feed/ 2 Obama ad attacks Romney on Big Bird http://www.salon.com/2012/10/09/obama_ad_attacks_romney_on_big_bird/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/09/obama_ad_attacks_romney_on_big_bird/#comments Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:12:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13034530 A new national ad by the Obama campaign hits Mitt Romney for commenting in the debate that he'd cut federal funding for PBS. "Big, yellow, a menace to our economy," the ad says. "Mitt Romney knows it's not Wall Street you have to worry about. It's Sesame Street."

Watch:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/09/obama_ad_attacks_romney_on_big_bird/feed/ 11 The Week in Pictures http://www.salon.com/2012/10/06/the_week_in_pictures_67/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/06/the_week_in_pictures_67/#comments Sat, 06 Oct 2012 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13027160 http://www.salon.com/2012/10/06/the_week_in_pictures_67/feed/ 0 Sesame Street fights back http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/sesame_street_fights_back/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/sesame_street_fights_back/#comments Fri, 05 Oct 2012 20:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13031730 [slide_show id=13031757]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/sesame_street_fights_back/feed/ 22 LeVar Burton is not happy with Romney http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/levar_burton_is_not_happy_with_romney/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/levar_burton_is_not_happy_with_romney/#comments Fri, 05 Oct 2012 16:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13031322 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:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/levar_burton_is_not_happy_with_romney/feed/ 16 Rick Santorum wants to kill, eat Big Bird http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/rick_santorum_wants_to_kill_eat_big_bird/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/rick_santorum_wants_to_kill_eat_big_bird/#comments Fri, 05 Oct 2012 15:14:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13031354 Not one to be outdone by Mitt Romney (well, except in the only way that counts), former Republican hopeful and sweater vest connoisseur Rick Santorum stepped up the GOP attack on Big Bird: Santorum said he would eat the poor Muppet, too.

"I've voted to kill Big Bird in the past," he told CNN host Piers Morgan. "I have a record there that I have to disclose. That doesn't mean I don’t like Big Bird. I mean, you can kill things and still like them, maybe to eat them, I don’t know."

Yikes. Let's just hope that none of Santorum's seven children were watching.

h/t TPM

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/rick_santorum_wants_to_kill_eat_big_bird/feed/ 7 Six examples of the right’s war on children’s characters http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/six_examples_of_the_rights_war_on_children_characters/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/six_examples_of_the_rights_war_on_children_characters/#comments Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:17:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13031266 AlterNet Mitt Romney's comments, during Wednesday night's debate, about cutting funding for PBS despite his “love” for Big Bird, immediately got a response from the Internet: FiredBigBird popped up on Twitter shortly after the comments and was quickly joined by Sesame Street colleagues FireMeElmo and FiredOscar, as well as BigBirdRomney.

PBS has long been a conservative target, despite the minuscule amount of savings that cutting it would actually produce. As Laura Clawson noted at Daily Kos, “Romney's setting up the need for $9.6 trillion in non-defense cuts. His answer? Fire Big Bird to save $445 million.” Big Bird and his cohort are just collateral damage in the Right's war on anything public; Romney can sadly shake his head and say that even though he loves Big Bird, the big yellow guy just has to go because of the deficits!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/six_examples_of_the_rights_war_on_children_characters/feed/ 9 PBS turns “Big Bird” comment into an opportunity http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/pbs_turns_big_bird_comment_into_an_opportunity/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/pbs_turns_big_bird_comment_into_an_opportunity/#comments Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13031226 Romney triggered a Twitter-storm after he attacked PBS with his now-infamous comment. PBS shot right back, though, releasing a statement that went viral. PBS also leveraged the Twitter meme (Big Bird was trending most of the day), by displaying an ad every time someone searches for "Big Bird."

The ad read “PBS is trusted, valued and essential," and linked to a site that shows the real impact (and affordability) of PBS. Judging by its reach, it seems like someone at PBS could teach the Romney campaign about social media.

h/t Mashable

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/05/pbs_turns_big_bird_comment_into_an_opportunity/feed/ 15 Did Twitter ban fake Big Bird accounts? http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/did_twitter_ban_fake_big_bird_accounts/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/did_twitter_ban_fake_big_bird_accounts/#comments Thu, 04 Oct 2012 20:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13030804 After Mitt Romney threatened Big Bird's livelihood yesterday, Twitter exploded in defense of the feathery friend. Instant-sensation parody accounts such as @FiredBigBird popped up, posting doctored images of Big Bird in the unemployment line and begging.

But now questions of censorship and foul play are swirling across the Twitterverse as @FiredBigBird's account has been suspended and unsuspended numerous times in the past 24 hours.

@FiredBigBird reached out to Salon via email to explain the Twitter saga. Following the account's swift rise to popularity (12,000 followers), Twitter suspended the account before confirming that the user was a real person, the account owner explained.

Twitter policy does allow for parody accounts, but impersonator accounts that might deceive other users are banned. Given that @FiredBigBird has been reinstated, it seems clear that he was not considered an impersonator of PBS' character in any way that violated Twitter policy.

"It seems to me to be an automated thing," @FiredBigBird told Salon, adding, "But the reaction of my followers I think is the funniest thing. They assume Romney had a hand in it … they suspect Mitt Romney is calling Twitter on Bat[man]-like red phone to have me suspended."

Indeed, as soon as news emerged of the brief suspension, the hashtag #Birdgate started gaining traction, noting that other Big Bird parody accounts had been pushed off Twitter:

[embedtweet id="253940002487148544"]

Despite conspiracy theories abounding, it is not unusual for Twitter's algorithms to automatically block accounts that look like spam. Twitter has not returned Salon's request for comment, but @FiredBigBird does not believe he was deliberately pushed from his perch.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/did_twitter_ban_fake_big_bird_accounts/feed/ 1 PBS takes a bullet http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/bad_pbs_good_pbs/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/bad_pbs_good_pbs/#comments Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:50:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13030308 One of the more schizophrenic outcomes of last night’s Obama-Romney debate, and the insta-panic Obama’s poor performance has fomented among liberals, has to do with PBS. The morning after, the Public Broadcasting System finds itself both scapegoat and call to arms, with liberals simultaneously dissing moderator Jim Lehrer and embracing the ever-adorable Big Bird.

On MSNBC last night, after the debate had wrapped, Rachel Maddow refrained from naming a “winner” (her colleagues would not be so polite — or is it partisan?) but did say she thought Jim Lehrer, elder (and elderly) statesman of PBS, had officially put the nail in the coffin of this particular debate format. By near universal assessment, Lehrer did a bad job, but Maddow was spinning, taking the focus off Obama and putting it on Lehrer with a bit of blame-shifting. As Frank Rich wrote on Twitter last night, “Lehrer can't be blamed for Obama's failings. His own were dreadful enough.” But Lehrer is still shouldering some of the criticism for a less-than-stellar-for-the-Democrats debate.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/bad_pbs_good_pbs/feed/ 9 You do not mess with Big Bird http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/you_do_not_mess_with_big_bird/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/you_do_not_mess_with_big_bird/#comments Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:46:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13030296 In a debate in which Mitt Romney emerged as the near universally declared winner (perhaps because it wasn't a truth-telling competition), there was one unexpected casualty of the night: public broadcasting.

Before the debate was even over, the sputtery, passive performance by PBS's stalwart star Jim Lehrer as debate moderator was already being panned as the worst thing to happen to television this year that didn't involve a Kardashian. And more significantly, the network's 43-year-old altitudinous icon, Big Bird, got a surprise dis when the man who would be president declared, "I'm sorry, Jim, I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too. But I’m not going to keep spending money on things, borrowing money from China to pay for it."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/you_do_not_mess_with_big_bird/feed/ 22 Big Bird: The debate’s real winner http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/big_bird_the_debates_real_winner/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/big_bird_the_debates_real_winner/#comments Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:13:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13030100 The breakout moment of the debate was when Mitt Romney talked about cutting federal funding for the arts, and for places like PBS. "I'm sorry Jim. I'm gonna stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm gonna stop other things," Romney said. "I like PBS, I like Big Bird, I actually like you too."

Twitter reacted accordingly:

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