Despite being effectively fired by Mitt Romney during the first presidential candidates' debate, Big Bird doesn't need the president going to bat for him. Obama's campaign released a TV commercial (description: "According to Mitt Romney, it's not Wall Street you have to worry about, it's Sesame Street") criticizing Romney for making the Sesame Street star, as the brand ambassador of PBS and the federally-funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Public Enemy #1. The Sesame Workshop wasn't amused, responding:

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 both campaigns remove Sesame Street characters and trademarks from their campaign materials.

That's right — the president of the United States was schooled by puppets, but his campaign still has not taken down the offending video, despite the request, by this writing. Whether Sesame Workshop's lawyers sends a cease and desist letter (unlikely) remains to be seen.Continue reading...

This is the video that yesterday brought down the head of fundraising — and today, the CEO — of NPR.

It's a self-styled bit of muckraking — a covertly taped conversation with Ron Schiller, who until yesterday was president of the NPR Foundation and SVP of development (read: fundraising) for America's National Public Radio. His was a critical role, as NPR has been fighting to maintain funding and political support in the face of criticism from the political right in the US.

Today, he was followed out the door at NPR by Vivian Schiller, no family relation but certainly related as a fellow executive at NPR — one also caught in the crosshairs of rising political tension between the left and right in the US.Continue reading...