Million Puppet March passes the Supreme Court of the United States

Initially called the Million

Muppet The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are ...

March, Million Puppet March was a grassroots rally organized during the 2012 Presidential campaign in support of continued public funding of public media.Idea for Million Muppet March on National Mall May Become Reality
Current. American University School of Communication.10 October 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2014'Million Muppet March' planned to defend U.S. backing for PBS
Reuters, 12 October 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2018 The March took place of November 3, 2012. Co-organized by Michael Bellavia and Chris Mecham, the march was inspired by the comments of Presidential hopeful

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts f ...

during his 2012 presidential debate with

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

. Romney promised to end funding for public broadcasting, saying during the debate that he would stop the federal subsidy to

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

.Big Bird in the Presidential Debate: Mitt Romney advocates cutting funding for Sesame Street, PBS
Washington Post. 4 October 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2018 In particular, Romney added, "I like PBS, I love

Big Bird Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the long-running children's television show ''Sesame Street''. An eight-foot two-inch (249 cm) tall bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skat ...

." Bellavia and Mecham viewed Romney's threat as a

straw man A straw man (sometimes written as strawman) is a form of argument and an informal fallacy of having the impression of refuting an argument, whereas the real subject of the argument was not addressed or refuted, but instead replaced with a false ...

argument on the issue of the Federal budget and a

dog whistle A dog whistle (also known as silent whistle or Galton's whistle) is a type of whistle that emits sound in the ultrasonic range, which humans cannot hear but some other animals can, including dogs and domestic cats, and is used in their training ...

to ultra-conservatives meant to convey his position on social issues.Million Puppet March
CNN. 3 November 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2014
Washington Post, 3 November 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2014 The 2012 Million Puppet March, which drew some 1500 participants, received recognition from Record Setter as the largest puppet march. Participants included

Bread and Puppet Theater The Bread and Puppet Theater (often known simply as Bread & Puppet) is a politically radical puppet theater, active since the 1960s, based in Glover, Vermont . The theater was co-founded by Elka and Peter Schumann. Peter is the artistic directo ...

, the makers of the '' I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story'' documentary that featured the original performer of

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

characters Big Bird and

Oscar the Grouch Oscar the Grouch is a Muppet character created by Jim Henson and Jon Stone for the PBS/HBO children's television program ''Sesame Street''. He has a green body, no visible nose, and lives in a trash can. Oscar's favorite thing is trash, as eviden ...

, Beale Street Puppets, the cast of STUFT, and Craig Aaron, executive director of Free Press. The organizers of the March continue to support public media with ongoing education and advocacy efforts around puppetry with other parades and mobilizations around the country including

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, and

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

.Free Press Media Reform Conference
2013Santa Monica to Host Million Puppet March
Patch. 23 April 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2018

References

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External links

Million Puppet March
2012 protests November 2012 events in the United States Protest marches in Washington, D.C. Puppetry organizations Advocacy groups in the United States 2012 in Washington, D.C. 2012 United States presidential election Public broadcasting in the United States

See also

References

External links