Mitt Romney's vow to “fire” Sesame Street star Big Bird has sparked a massive online reaction. Within hours of his comment 225,000 people had seen a Facebook posting that directed visitors to a site supporting US broadcaster PBS, which screens the children’s show.
One Twitter user created an @FiredBigBird account and put up a photo of the character on a Depression-era breadline with the caption: “This is now my life.” The account had more than 10,000 followers before it was suspended. Mr Romney said in yesterday’s TV debate with President Obama he intended to stop subsidies to public broadcasters such as PBS. “I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it,” he said. Mr Obama ridiculed the remark during a campaign stop in Madison, Wisconsin. “I just want to make sure I’ve got this straight,” he said. “Mr Romney will get rid of regulations on Wall Street, but he’s going to crack down on Sesame Street. Thank goodness somebody’s finally cracking down on Big
Bird. Who knew that he was responsible for all these deficits?”
Big Bird declined requests to appear on five TV chat shows.
