A two-year old Sesame Street skit in which Oscar the Grouch starts his own cable news channel, "GNN," was recently re-aired. In it, a muppet 'viewer' calls-in to criticize GNN's sensational coverage, ending the call with, "From now on, I'm watching Pox News - now there's a trashy news show!" These thinly-veiled jabs at the two most popular American cable news networks, CNN and Fox News, now have Conservatives up-in-arms.
Again, nothing was made of the skit when it originally aired (some two years ago). Of course, this was before Barack Obama was elected President - and before the Obama administration entered a tête-à-tête with Fox News! While even a PBS spokesman has apologized for the skit, which he says crossed a line of which producers should have been aware, the truth is that only stupid people would consider this skit anything other than what it is: a parody of today's celebrity-obsessed "info-tainment" news programming.
Kids don't know from news channels or "bias." Sesame Street, like many others, knows that parents watch a lot of children's programming with their kids - if for no other reason than that it is on nearly 24/7! This was obviously one of those skits meant to entertain parents - something that would go over kids' heads and entertain the parents for a change. Sadly, had the roles been reversed - with Oscar putting together 'Pox News' and the caller saying she was switching to TNN (the Trash News Network) - these same people would insist the same thing.
While I agree that politics should be left out of children's programming, this was a dig at both CNN and Fox News, and when you get right down to it, the skit was about today's news coverage, in general, not Fox News - and it was aimed at parents, not children. Fox News watchers, and Fox News in general, really are problematic and possibly dangerous; they are extremists without a sense of humor and they stir-up crap like this on a weekly basis.
Sesame Street celebrates its 40th birthday tomorrow. First Lady, Michelle Obama, is scheduled to appear.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
A rambling melange of pop-culture.
No comments:
Post a Comment