Big Bird may have been unwittingly thrown into the political debate when Mitt Romney discussed his plans to cut taxpayer funding for PBS. But now that Big Bird has the public’s attention, there an important distinction that Romney, like nearly everyone else, needs to know:
Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organization that produces Sesame Street, is a completely separate company from the non-profit Public Broadcasting System (PBS). If you donate $50 to PBS, none of that money goes to Sesame.
“It is confusing,” says Sesame Workshop’s Sherrie Rollins Westin. “Whenever there’s a discussion over taxpayer money funding public television, they use us to make their argument. Republicans want to take money away from Elmo. Democrats want to send money to Elmo. But from a financial standpoint, Sesame is completely separate from PBS.”
Sesame Workshop may be financially independent from PBS, but the two organizations are dependent on one another in other ways. Sesame Workshop relies on PBS to distribute its programming to U.S. children, and they both share a mission to provide all children, especially ones from lower-economic brackets, access to educational programming. “Our success is their success,” says Rollins Westin.
At the same time, PBS and Sesame oftentimes find themselves competing for the same public donations. Many parents mistakenly assume that when they give money to their local PBS station, they are supporting Sesame Street, especially because PBS prominently displays Sesame Street in its fundraising drives. While this attention helps to promote and raise awareness for Sesame Street, it also insinuates that the contribution will benefit the series, when it does not. “We work very hard to get funding, and the reason for this distinction is that we are not without the need for money,” says Rollins Westin.
PBS also finds itself on the defensive when opponents point out that it doesn’t need taxpayer money because it receives millions from the licensing of popular Sesame characters. Sesame Workshop receives millions from its Elmo-branded toys, but PBS doesn’t a dime.
As for Sesame Workshop’s reaction about becoming part of the political debate, company executives released a statement saying the organization has been “a proud partner of PBS for 43 years, and is dependent on PBS to distribute our commercial-free educational program. We do not comment on campaigns, but we’re happy we can all agree that everyone likes Big Bird.”
