Fox Versus Grouch

In a recent episode of the children's educational show, one character made a pun about Pox (with a P) News. Luckily for Fox, there were a bunch of viewers ready to leap to their defense. Cue letters to PBS, complaining that this was really secret Moaist indoctrination to make kids hate Bill O'Reilly. This was, one letter writer said, proof that the show had been "corrupted by the political leanings of the production staff" (a tacit admission that saying anything against Fox is a political, not media, criticism).

PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler stepped gingerly into this minefield on his blog when he wrote "Everybody who wrote to me heard this as 'Fox News,' and I can't really blame them." It wasn't that it was called Pox News that was the problem, he continued, it was that they added that it was "a trashy news show."

This has actually only increased the controversy. Talking to Getler (the former Washington Post ombudsman), he said that before his column he had only received five or six letters on the letters: Since publication, "I've had hundreds in the last few days." The overwhelming tone, he said, "was similar to the original letters, which was, 'How dare Sesame Street do this?' But there were a fair number in the last day or two that were defending Sesame Street, and that this was knee-jerk right wing paranoia displaying itself."

Let's ignore for a moment that the whole skit was set on GNN (don't hear Lou Dobbs complaining). Or that, in Grouch speak, trashy is high praise. As Sesame Street producer Miranda Barry pointed out in her response, the show was a re-run and was first aired in August 2007. Where was the criticism back then? Did people only just notice, or has Fox playing the victim card made people hyper-sensitive about perceived criticism of a media giant? Actually, Getler said, "There were some earlier [letters of complaint], last year or the year before, but I really didn't pay much attention."

From on-air goof ball Guy Smiley to GNN, Sesame Street has always taken a few potshots at the media and encouraged kids to think critically about the news. Maybe that's what this fuss is really about. Because if it's really about opposing the show's core message of compassion, community and cooperation, we're all in trouble.