At Wednesday's presidential debate, Mitt Romney said he would cut funding to PBS. | AP Photos PBS: 'Romney does not understand'

Mitt Romney’s promise Wednesday night to gut federal funding for PBS has suddenly made it a campaign issue, prompting PBS to accuse the GOP nominee of not understanding public broadcasting’s value to America.

”We are very disappointed that PBS became a political target in the Presidential debate last night,” PBS said in a statement. “Governor Romney does not understand the value the American people place on public broadcasting and the outstanding return on investment the system delivers to our nation.”


During Wednesday’s debate, Romney told moderator Jim Lehrer, a longtime PBS anchor, “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. Actually, I like you too. But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for us.”

Romney’s remark immediately lit up Twitter — Big Bird was still among the top trending topics at midday on Thursday — and became a talking point on cable TV.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart said Thursday that PBS and Big Bird will survive without federal funds that could be better spent elsewhere.

“Big Bird will be fine, trust me,” the Florida Republican said on CNN. “Big Bird is always going to be on TV, but the questions is, should we be sending hard-earned taxpayer money to an entity that is a multimillion dollar entity that’s going to be there with or without taxpayer subsidy?”

The government funds the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private, nonprofit corporation that distributes the subsidy to local PBS stations. In the 2012 fiscal year, CPB was given $444 .1 million — about 0.012 percent of the entire federal budget, as astrophysicist and radio host Neil deGrasse Tyson accurately tweeted Thursday. By law, CPB must give around 72 percent of its appropriation directly to stations, with lesser amounts going to PBS and other public TV and radio broadcasters. In the 2011 fiscal year, for example, PBS received just $22.3 million of CPB’s total $429 million appropriation, according to the most current data available.

CPB estimates that for about $1.35 per American per year, “PBS stations return six times that amount in programming and services.”

PBS CEO Paula Kerger defended her network earlier Thursday, saying it was “stunning” that Romney said he wanted to slash “America’s biggest classroom” during a debate partly about education.

“The fact that we are the focus is just unbelievable to me,” Kerger said on CNN. “Whether you have books in your home or computer or not, almost everyone has a television set. The fact that we are in this debate— this isn’t about the budget. It has to be about politics.”

Cuts could prompt some stations, especially in rural areas, to go dark, she said.

“So that is actually what is at risk if, in fact, we are defunded because they money is going to stations around the country,” said Kerger, who called Romney’s remark “well-rehearsed.”

PBS’s statement cited a 2011 national survey that found that 69 percent of Americans oppose eliminating government funding for public broadcasting, versus 27 percent who favor it.

The sudden attention to Big Bird after the debate prompted Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind “Sesame Street,” to state: “Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, educational organization. We do not comment on campaigns, but we’re happy we can all agree that everyone likes Big Bird.”

Sherrie Westin, executive vice president of Sesame Workshop, said the program has partnered with PBS for 43 years.

“We’re dependent on PBS to distribute our programs to children throughout the United States,” she said. “That’s how ‘Sesame Street’ reaches all children, particularly low-income children.”

Even though Big Bird was on all of America’s lips Thursday morning, Diaz-Balart downplayed Romney’s remark.

“You think that was the highlight moment from his debate?” he asked CNN’s Carol Costello. “That is a red herring and I think a pretty light moment.”