Can you believe Sesame Street is 40 years old? It's Sesame Street's birthday today and some people believe that Oscar the Grouch is distributing leftist propaganda. On Sesame Street?
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Sesame Street — 40 years of laughs, joy, and communism?
By Jimmy Orr | 11.04.09
Happy Birthday, Sesame Street.
The timeless children’s program celebrated its 40th anniversary Wednesday to much celebration. Even Google commemorated the big day by changing its logo on their home page.
But not everyone’s happy with the PBS offering. One high profile website featured a blog questioning the political leanings of everyone’s favorite trash-loving muppet. Or perhaps, more accurately, the writers behind Oscar the Grouch and all the gang at Sesame Street.
Surprising? Well, when you produce a satirical skit on a network that receives a chunk of its funding from the federal government, some people are going to get upset. Especially if the satire doesn’t bend their way.
Controversial video exposed
One such skit, apparently produced two years ago but was re-released last week, is in the crosshairs of a conservative blogger who penned a 900-word manifesto Wednesday condemning the program.
No, the video doesn’t contain footage of Oscar attending an ACORN meeting or delivering a sermon with Jeremiah Wright. Instead, he appears at the helm of a new news network he founded. Oscar calls it GNN — the Grouchy News Network (see a portion of the video below).
But there’s a problem with GNN. An unnamed muppet in the skit calls Oscar to complain that his programming isn’t grouchy enough. So she’s switching to another network.
“I am changing the channel,” she rants to Oscar. “From now on I am watching ‘Pox’ News. Now there is a trashy news show.”
POX news or FOX News
Pox News? A not-so-subtle slam at FOX News? They’re getting beat up everywhere. Sure, some of it’s self-imposed like yesterday’s blooper, but this “Pox News” thing is not coincidental says the blogger who calls himself “Stage Right” on Andrew Breitbart’s conservative Big Hollywood site.
“If Mom and Dad watch cable news, it’s better than 50/50 they watch ‘POX News,” he writes. “So what gives? PBS — a network partially funded with my tax dollars — has the right to tell my kids that their parents watch ‘trashy’ news?”
“The message is clear, I can’t even sit my kids in front of “Sesame Street” without having to worry about the Left attempting to undermine my authority,” he said. “And don’t tell me, ‘If you don’t like it change the channel.’ There are no channels left! It’s everywhere.”
On the other hand
Well, maybe it’s not that bad. Perhaps “Stage Right” just needed to blow off some steam. Because at the end of his missive, Mr. Right changes his tune.
Sesame Street? Meh.
“Sesame Street can awkwardly slam FoxNews from the comfort of their stodgy old PBS studios,” he writes. “Meanwhile, we have the cool kids on our side: Dennis Miller, Greg Gutfeld, Andrew Breitbart and yes, even Glenn Beck. And our cool kids are pointing out just how boring, lame, predictable and lazy the other side has become.”
“We no longer NEED their approval. We see them for what they are: bitter, pompous and desperate,” he adds.
A tempest in a teapot, it appears. But Right’s rant was something that the left side of the blogosphere took great enjoyment in lampooning.
“Call the Waahhmbulance! Wingnuts upset over ‘Pox News’ on Sesame Street,” reads Susie Madrak’s headline over at the popular Crooks and Liars website.
Right, Left, Center?
Regardless, the “controversy” appears to have subsided. In the meantime, we tried to identify Oscar’s political persuasion by reviewing video on YouTube. But we weren’t that successful.
All that we could come up with is that he’s kind of a cross between Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann. His personality is more like O’Reilly. Yet he’s green. So that would make him Olbermann-like.
As for his appearance, Wolf Blitzer probably comes the closest. Not that Blitzer looks like he lives in a garbage can or anything but there aren’t many TV commentators with facial hair.
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Hey, we don’t care if you’re green and live in a garbage can. We’ll never accuse you of communism. So follow us on Twitter!
Comments
3. Tuby | 11.05.09
Sounds to me like they were calling *all* cable news “trashy”. Of course, neocons have a persecution complex, so the response isn’t really surprising.
4. Not happy with comment | 11.05.09
What are trying to do? let kids be kids. They have enough to worry about when they grow up. it is supposed to be funny. Grow up already!
5. Ricky Lee | 11.05.09
Given the fact the mainstream news outlets have become pompus and arrogant about everything since handing Obama the election it’s no surprise that Sesame Street would be politicized as well. The left thinks that having a majority of channels agree with their politics means they will have more cultural sway. Given the fact that Dems cannot keep it together for more than 1 term these days I don’t think it is as bad as people think. Obama is sour that ‘Pox News’ didn’t air his billionth public address on their main Fox stations but only on the cable version. Obama has far too big an ego to deem his every speech as important. No one cares what he says because we all know it’s lip service. Let the left claim their temporary victories.
6. Micks | 11.05.09
This is absolutely ridiculous, this whole two party political system entices rivalries that are fueled by pure stupidity, there can be nothing else if they could produce such unfounded statements with such determination.
8. Tom | 11.05.09
… They know it’s a show for five-year-olds right? This whole conversation, this whole article, is stupid.
9. Phil | 11.05.09
Really? Really? You are going to attack a favorite kids show because they were unoriginal with Oscars news station names? Maybe its time you and all the other news media grew up and just started reporting the news. We don’t need your opinions and we definitely do not need you trying to link everything under the sun to some sinister plot. This an complete embarrassment and a total waste of time.
10. L | 11.05.09
If Oscar the Grouch calls something “trashy” he’s giving it a high compliment. His very own theme song is, “I Love Trash”!
11. Yo | 11.05.09
In Oscar’s world, calling something TRASHY is GOOD (he loves trash!). All the children who watch the show know this.
If you were paying attention, you would notice that the sketch is making fun of CNN, not FOX. They had royalty kissing the reporter then someone called in to complain that Oscar was too easy on the royalty. From what I can tell, if anything real is to be taken out of this sketch (doubtful!) its that the left-wing media (CNN) is in good with the current “aristocracy”.
12. surprised | 11.05.09
Could it possibly be that…GASP!…Oscar doesn’t have ANY political leanings!? Seriously guys, Oscar is a Muppet. He was made for children, the show was made for children–stop forcing your ridiculous political wars on everything. This is almost as silly as the freak out over Tinky Winky and his magic bag. Kids don’t get politics and sexuality, nor should they have to. Forcing adult themes onto these shows says much more about the people having fits than it does about the writers of a show that was started to help children learn (which, I’d like to point it, it does exceedingly well).
13. Arvin | 11.05.09
Every time a conspiracy theorist passes his/her PBS station, he sees a Communist plot. These people have lost it.
14. Jason | 11.05.09
I can already see televised footage of Oscar the Grouch before new McCarthy style Congressional anti-communist hearings headed up by Michele Bachmann.
16. J.Brown | 11.06.09
I think some of you are missing the point on both sides. Some are saying forget about it, it’s a kids show and I somewhat agree. Others are saying no this can be a problem and I agree with that also. We all remember seeing kids on TV during the presidential campaign booing or praise Obama and McCain alike. Children only doing what their parents told them to do.
TV can be a powerful policitcal tool when used in this way, but it can also be just for fun and entertainment. I think the people who only truly know what the intention were are the writers and producers of Sesame Street. Let their conscience be the judge while both sides continue to debate their point. I think this is a healthy debate as long as we protect our children from the actual political debate.
In the end as parents you have a choice let your kid watch Seasame Street 9and show like it) or don’t let them watch. There will be more stuff like this on TV as time goes along it is our job as parent to screen what we thnk is acceptable for our children.
17. Al the Pal | 11.06.09
A guy that lives in a trashcan CAN make it to the job of leadreporter.
Isn’t that a good example of the american way of live?
See so where is the problem?
Regards Al the Pal
18. Laurie | 11.06.09
The left has been out to indoctrinate kids since the Communist Manifesto was written. I just reviewed parts of Marx’s Manifesto this week on line and learned the role they hoped public education would play if they could get the idea to catch on. Usually Sesame Street is more subtle than this. Have you ever wondered why Bert and Ernie live together? But, Pox TV crosses a line that makes me VERY uncomfortable! I rarely let my kids watch Sesame Street before, but now I’ll be more vigilant about other PBS shows, possibly banning the network!
19. J. Smith | 11.06.09
OMG, seriously? The right needs to be on anti-anxiety meds. I raised a child who watched Sesame Street. I can guarantee that child never remembered anything as insignificant as the name of something from an Oscar the Grouch skit. He laughed at the comedy and he was off to explore other things about his world. The only thing children learn from this type of extremism is how to become a drama queen. Let kids be kids. They don’t take anything seriously until they have to start thinking about their future, which is high school….unless their parents have forced them into remembering stupid little trivia such as this. At Sesame Street age, all they care about is whether there is a free swing at the park.
21. Sigmund | 11.06.09
Come on those of you with a brain, this clip is far too short to be indoctrinating in nature. The kids will see it and snicker.
And then they’ll make up their own minds. Maybe not then, but at some point. And where will you be then, parents?
22. I love Oscar | 11.06.09
Well I’m 5 years old and I don’t know what the big deal is. All I know is that I love Oscar the Grouch!
23. 42 | 11.06.09
Yes but, I have to point out that FOX News IS trashy. Besides, it was a JOKE people!!! Let go. It’s alright. Why are Americans in general so touchy about things?
24. FOXY Guy | 11.06.09
FOX news should get over itself.
Other news organizations do a better job anyway.
Xenophobics watch FOX, not calm citizens.
You can’t expect FOX to stay balanced on this issue.
On the other hand, maybe we should give FOX credit.
Understand, they *were* watching educational TV.
FOX, get over it and pick on someone you own size: microscopic.
25. Captain Awesome | 11.06.09
Well I don’t see what the big deal is. I voted for Bush and Obama (I’m an indy) and I was not offended by this at all. For Oscar the Grouch, trashy = good, positive, and otherwise superior, so Pox News was actually being portrayed as better than GNN…what’s the big deal with that? As a child, I always understood that for the Grouch, “smelly” and “trashy” were good things, and I don’t think today’s children will take it any differently, they’ll just laugh and wonder what would make Pox News more appealing to Oscar’s angry call-in lady.
One tactic of fear-mongering and extremism is to make others seem to be the extreme. I don’t trust anyone who consistently portrays the other side as extreme, therefore I trust neither political party to run this country on their own, which is why I believe that at worst, the dual party system is a necessary evil, and at best, the two parties serve as a check against each other and prevent each other from becoming too powerful for too long.
No, I don’t believe that Sesame Street is part of a lefty communist agenda. If it were, I wouldn’t support it, but I certainly don’t support the neo-conservative right either. I support what’s in the best interests of the United States, period.
I’m scared to see that people are pronouncing doom for the nation from the corners of…Sesame Street. Seriously, and you all think that Bert and Ernie might not just be roommates?!?! I never even considered any other possibility until I was 20! I always thought they were just pals, and I still do.
I don’t think this was meant to be taken as seriously as it has been.
26. CNN?? | 11.06.09
Why isn’t CNN upset about the GNN….. If anything this promoted kids to watch POX news as one muppet said it was a better (though grouchy) news show. More important things to worry about in this country.
27. Charlie | 11.06.09
What a yawn. Reminds me of how repubs spent 8 years saying that every one of Bush’s blunders were really Clinton’s fault. Now they’re down to looking at years-old Sesame Street skits in rerun to find the “hidden agenda?” And I know who Dennis Miller is, he used to be a pretty funny comedian years ago, but I don’t even know who the other two people mentioned are. As for Glenn Beck, well, we all know (unfortunately) about Glenn Beck.
28. Yang | 11.06.09
It’s a joke right? There aren’t really people out there that think Muppets are politically subversive influences on pre-schoolers? Makes me wonder about what the kids lives are like that thier parents feel powerless in the face of such terror. For my own part I shall laugh WITH my kids at the jokes and hope that my smallest grow up with an ability to apprechiate the humour in life rather than sending the message that Oscar and his friends are out to brain-wash them and cannot be trusted. My eldest didn’t come out too bad. 
29. AWL | 11.06.09
With the level of sophistication of today’s kindergarteners and first graders’ deciphering abilities concerning subtleties and nuances in skits like Oscar’s GNN, Sesame Street knew they were stepping over the line. It would not be surprising if the next thing Oscar reports on is the propriety of evolution versus creationism. The kids will really get into the nuances and subtleties of that report; and it shouldn’t be anywhere as controversial as Pox/Fox.
But before Oscar takes on that subject, Sesame Street needs to atone for being out of line with Pox/Fox . I suggest that they invite Sarah Palin to come and give a demonstration to Oscar on field dressing a moose. She could splay the carcass in front of Oscar’s garbage can; gut the moose and fill up Oscar’s residence with moose entrails. The boys in Sesame Street’s audience would love it and it would be a great life lesson in survival.
If the above is sophomoric and out of line, I would argue that it is no worse the Andrew Breitbart’s rant where he apparently believes Sesame Street’s child audience actually understood the subtleties in the GNN sketch. He must have had a very slow news day.
By the way I still enjoy all the Muppets and their movies. Still laugh at the fork in the road and I’m 64.
30. Lou | 11.07.09
If we let this slide by what more will they be telling our kids? I think they should not be going to this extreme or anywhere near it.
31. Melisa | 11.11.09
I grew up on Sesame Street, and lately I noticed that the programs aired in my country (the Philippines) are not as good as the ones I used to watch when I was still a kid.
We often see the program itself in making these opinions like “laugh, joy, and communism,” but I think the bottom line here is the class or kind of writers behind the skits and the dialogues.
32. Steve-O | 11.13.09
I don’t see a problem with the segment. But the argument that “Sesame Street’s just for kids” is repellent.
When discussing a popular kid’s movie, a parent raised concern that the movie encouraged racial stereotypes. I thought the concern was nonsense. But it’s not fair to bully a concerned parent into dropping it.
If anything, the fact that it’s “just for kids” makes it more important to question the material.
33. Kevin | 11.17.09
“The message is clear, I can’t even sit my kids in front of “Sesame Street” without having to worry about the Left attempting to undermine my authority,”
If you have so little authority over your kids that a children’s program can change the very outcome of their viewpoints then I for one fear for your children’s future.
34. Paul Hoogeveen | 11.18.09
Here’s a not-so-surpirsing news flash: ALL television is indoctrination of one sort or another. Commercial television’s singular indictrination goal? the profileration of the consumption culture. Is it any wonder that consumerists would see public television as the antithesis of what is “good” television?
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Jimmy Orr has worked in politics for the majority of his professional career working for two U.S. Senators, two Governors and one President. Most recently, Orr served as White House Spokesman and Internet Director for President George W. Bush and Special Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger for Internet Communications.
David Cook is Washington bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor and host of the Monitor's newsmaker breakfasts. He was the Monitor's editor from 1994 to 2001. Cook is a graduate of Principia College, served in the U.S. Army, was a Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, and is a member of the Gridiron Club, Washington's oldest journalistic organization.
1. Philokrates | 11.04.09
It really says something, in my humble opinion, that members of the left and right together get in hissy fits about stuff like this. The histrionics of these extremists are almost Oscar-worthy, pun completely intended. Breitbart’s comments imply that Sesame Street is somehow trying to indoctrinate the children of America. If they are so swayed by this, then they probably just shouldn’t watch TV. Wait until they discover MTV for Pete’s sake! I think we all need to just calm down a little bit, because if Oscar the Grouch saying “POX News is trash” (not that it even means anything to a child anyway) is the most negative thing they see on TV for a while, you have done your job effectively in sheltering your children. Take a page out of your kids books and grow up.