Sesame Street Slams Fox News, Ombudsman Slams Sesame Street
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fox news oscar the grouch political ramifications rachel maddow
Sesame Street slams Fox News and then the show’s ombudsman slams Sesame Street.
A sketch from a two-year old episode of Sesame Street, that recently re-aired, has a character proclaiming, “I am changing the channel. From now on, I am watching ‘Pox’ News. Now there is a trashy news show.”
However, most people, including Sesame Street’s ombudsman, heard “Pox” as “Fox.”
I actually heard it as “box,” but then again my hearing is bad.
“Everybody who wrote to me heard this as ‘Fox News,’ and I can’t really blame them. When I went and watched the tape for the first time, I thought I heard “Fox” as well, perhaps because of the association one assumes when you hear “news” right after the word,” confessed PBS ombudsman Michael Getler.
The sketch in question involved Oscar the Grouch starting his own news channel called Grouch News Network or MSNBC for short. In it, Oscar interviewed “Walter Cranky,” “Dan Rather-Not,” and a Peyton-Manning-looking Muppet named Rachel Maddow (must be a new character).
The re-broadcast prompted viewers to contact both Fox News and PBS. Many were upset and felt the jab was inappropriate for Sesame Street’s extremely young audience.
Stage Right, a blogger from Breitbart’s Big Hollywood column, wrote, “I can’t even sit my kids in front of ‘Sesame Street’ without having to worry about the Left attempting to undermine my authority.”
At first glance this ordeal seems somewhat over blown. After all, Fox News is especially sensitive to criticism nowadays with the way they’ve been treated by the White House. Then there’s the fact that the offending sketch is two years old.
Additionally, how are kids stupid enough to still be watching Sesame Street going to understand the political ramifications of the character’s rant?
However, this is a serious issue because Sesame Street is federally funded. Our tax dollars were used to single out and slight a news organization.
Besides all S.S. had to do was cut the line, “Now there is a trashy news show,” and add the line, “They have Bill O’Smiley and Sean Insanity.” That folks is comedy gold.
By the way, Fox News is a network not a show.
Besides, of all the left-wing, radical, commie-lovin’ things Sesame Street characters have done, this is by far the least insidious…
6:45 am
Ha. The Count bit was hilarious. Yeah, this whole thing is blown way out of propotion.
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4:10 pm
Disney tends to take some flack from over-concerned parents upset about the hidden sexual references in some movies and I’m not surprised Sesame Street is any different. Keep in mind all these ‘children’ shows are written by adults who cannot put all their personal B.S. and bias to the side like an innocent child. (Children writing their own movies, now that’s an idea!) But, yeah, a kid watching this Sesame Street episode is never going to get the politcal reference so I don’t get the fuss either.
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