The worst thing that Mitt Romney could do was anger the PBS voting constituents in America, but he didn’t expect them to retaliate.
The former Massachusetts governor said to debate moderator Jim Lehrer, “I’m sorry, Jim, I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird, I actually like you, too. But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay.” In that instance, Big Bird, Sesame Street and others were backed by millions of fans who were incensed that Romney would have the brass beads to say that right to PBS’s NewsHour host, Jim Lehrer.
Reading Rainbow’s LeVar Burton is one of the people who is pretty outraged by Romney’s comments. In a statement-slash-rant to TMZ, Burton went in on the GOP presidential candidate, more or less accusing him of being a major reason behind the country’s lack of education preparedness:
“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. 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.” “On behalf of America’s children, I can’t stay silent,” Burton continued. “I encourage you to join me in fighting this short-sighted and frankly mean-spirited attack on our children.”
You know what that means people (and puppets) — it’s time to take our Sesame Streets back!
Props: TMZ