Following Mitt Romney’s comments about cutting funding to PBS during the presidential debate, 23-year-old University of Oregon alum Sam Chapman began a campaign to raise money and awareness for PBS. The Emerald spoke with him about the challenges of his campaign, the importance of social media, and what Big Bird might say.
So tell us the story behind your campaign for PBS and Big Bird.
I was watching the presidential debates last week, and heard Mitt Romney mention that he loves Jim Leher and he loves Big Bird but he would totally cut all funding to PBS. So immediately I jumped on Twitter and started to watch Big Bird trend throughout social media. I started to kinda get a feeling that this was one of those times where you have a small window of opportunity to see if something else can be done.
What is the motivation behind the campaign?
The motivation behind the campaign is to raise money and awareness to help save PBS. There’s been a lot of talk of cutting subsidies to PBS and that we don’t need it and things like that. That’s why I feel as strongly as I do about the campaign, and at least bringing awareness to the fact that Mitt Romney doesn’t value education in the way that I value it, and the way I think a lot of Americans value it.
What is the biggest challenge?
One of the biggest challenges, and this is something I am still working on, is getting PBS involved. Maybe we haven’t reached out to them in the method they would prefer quite yet, but we’re going to continue to try.
What would Big Bird say about the campaign?
I think Big Bird would say he wants to keep his job and continue educating children around the world. … Public education for children is something that the country has obviously always struggled with, and education reform is something that’s also a big social hobby of mine, education reform and working with the current system to see how it can be changed for the better. Big Bird would say, “Save PBS and save my job.”
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
The other thing I’d like to add is just to encourage other people to do things like this on their own. There’s all kinds of things that are going viral all the time and it all comes down to recognizing that it’s going viral and is there something you can do about it. … There’s so many things that people are trying to do and change for the better, and I think that this is the way to do that.