US News

PBS & Obama flipping Mitt the Big Bird

WASHINGTON — You’ve got to spend taxpayer money to get taxpayer money.

Federally funded PBS is buying ads on Twitter to exploit the flap over Mitt Romney’s threat to nix subsidies for Big Bird and the rest of the public-broadcasting crew.

The “Sesame Street” character went viral on the Web after Romney made the vow at Wednesday’s debate. At one point, Twitter saw more than 17,000 Big Bird tweets a minute.

“I like PBS. I love Big Bird,” Romney had said. “But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it.”

PBS is paying Twitter to display an ad when users search for “Big Bird.”

“PBS is trusted, valued and essential,” it reads, providing a link to valuepbs.org, a site that promotes PBS.

Meanwhile, President Obama enlisted Big Bird — or at least a crude imitation — to pester Romney yesterday at a rally in rural Virginia.

The faux-Big Bird (pictured) carried a sign that read, “Crack down on Wall Street not Sesame Street.”