'Sesame Street' Dig at POX News Draws Backlash, Rebuke From PBS

By PopEater Staff Posted Nov 6th 2009 12:40PM

A 2-year-old skit on 'Sesame Street' that referenced a "trashy" news channel called POX News came under fire this week when conservative bloggers accused the long-running PBS series of a liberal bias. In the clip, Oscar the Grouch is a reporter for the Grouch News Network (GNN), but he bored one female viewer, who responds: "From now on, I'm watching Pox News. Now there's a trashy news show!"

Big Hollywood, the celeb blog founded by conservative writer Andrew Breitbart, called out the old skit (re-run this week) as a jab at the mega popular news network. "The message is clear," a blogger named Stage Right noted, "I can't even sit my kids in front of 'Sesame Street' without having to worry about the Left attempting to undermine my authority."

Since then, the ombudsman for PBS has weighed in and agrees the parody "should have been resisted" by producers.

Writing on his PBS blog, Michael Getler told his readers:

"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.

I don't know what was in the head of the producers, but my guess is that this was one of those parodies that was too good to resist. But it should have been resisted. Broadcasters can tell parents whatever they think of Fox or any other network, but you shouldn't do it through the kids."

While PBS' ombudsman may believe the dig at FOX may have been a bit over the line, the show itself doesn't know what all the hubub is about. In comments to Yahoo! News, Sesame Workshop VP of communication Ellen Lewis called the offending skit "just another one of the many parodies that 'Sesame Street' has done over the years." (Our Fave 'Sesame' Spoofs Here)

Tags: pox news, PoxNews, sesame street, SesameStreet

Comments

(805)

Friday 06 November

By brian

Highest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

That one of my favorite shows. Get a life . People was killed in texas and your worried about this come on and GET REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!! pox news, box news, sox news WHO CARESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

By Erin

um ok, the way the female grouch puppet said it, it was meant as a compliment. Remember, they LIKE trash. She said she didn't want to watch the grouch news anymore because of hugs and kisses- I'm assuming because it's too sweet and not grouchy enough. Actually, I'm sure that kids watching this would probably laugh and say, "I'm going to watch POX news now!" or something like that. But, really who cares? The children watching this stuff are way too young to care about news channels. People really need to get a grip and stop looking for controversy in everything. It's SESAME STREET for goodness sakes!

Sunday 08 November

By Christina

Thats exactly what I thought!! To Grouches being a trashy network is a good thing. Fox should take it as a complement.

By Baldrz

Pat writes: "PBS was right, Sesame street was wrong, a show with a fine record like this has NO business becoming political."

So you finally admit that Faux is a political organization and not a news outlet? It's about time!

Tracy: These kinds of politics should not be in a children's show. Whether it influences them or not is not the issue. Why throw a comment like that in there? These shows should be innocent not promoting some political agenda.>>

What political agenda would that be? If Faux is as "fair and balanced" as they claim, then a pun on their name (which Sesame Street does all the time, BTW) isn't a political comment.

By BobbyD

Wait a minute... I don't understand. Since Fox News is "fair and balance" and therefore neither liberal or conservative, how can the Sesame Street skit be an attack from the left? You can't have it both ways. Either admit that Fox News is merely the propaganda wing of the Republican Party and circle the wagons, or shut up and take the criticism and satire just like everyone else must in this great land of freedom of speech and expression. Or is Fox supposed to be immuned from all criticism?

By Valeria W.

Pathetic.
This skit "Oscar & the GNN - Grouchy News Network" and he brags he has the most trashy show on TV.
Then every thing goes "wrong" and GNN keeps - against Oscar's will - all kinds of happy endings and sharing acts.
Grudgetta, on the phone, is the spectator that expects GNN to be trashy - THEY ARE GROUCHES FOR GARBAGE SAKE!!! - and is disappointed that GNN is "out of line", then she says she is going to change to POX news, that she WILL LOVE because it's really a trashy show.

THESE IMBECILES SHOW ONLY 50 SECONDS OF A SKIT THAT IS ALMOST 15 MINUTES LONG AND ANOTHER HORD OF IMBECILES FOLOW SUIT.

PATHETIC.

By bcoffee

Maybe FOX should stop being so trashy, then Sesame St. won't make fun of it.

By cange

Glenn Beck is now saying that Mr. Hooper was actually killed by an Obama 'Death Panel.' Of course, that was, like, 30 years ago. But that's Pox, I mean Fox News for you!

By Davida

Fox news and its followers need to stop playing victim. They can dish it but they sure can't take it. Sesame street is the ultimate learning show for children. It's teaching them early about trash TV.

By Renee

Lowest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Sesame Street has always talked trash and had very poor English. I have never thought it was good for our children to watch or learn from. They say things like:::: Me got cookie! great huh now you do the math

Saturday 07 November

By badgerthegrouch

High Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Finally, a spade is called a spade. Fox news is a pox on us all.

By Mindy

Vote down Vote up Report this

LOL - high-five, badger! My favorite comment here.

By Steph

I watched the show with my daughter this week and thought it was great. I didn't give a second thought to the trashy Pox news network. However, Sesame Street is about education and education is political. There are far greater political statements being made on Sesame Street than the Fox News Network being trashy. I for one am happy to have my daughter exposed.

By KEVIN

THANK GOD FOR FOX NEWS---THEIR BLATANT LIES AND FALSE TRUTHS AND ABSURD NOT SO WELL DISGUISED SUPPORT OF ALL THAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD KEEPS IT REAL EASY TO SUPPORT THE LEFT.THEY TAKE SO CALLED CONSERVATIVES ---A TOTAL MISNOMER--AND ALL THE RIGHT WING ABSURDITY AND SPLAY IT ALL OVER THE PLACE SO ONLY A TOTAL MORON COULD SUPPORT THEM---I AM STARTING TO WONDER IF DARWIN WAS POSSIBLY A LITTLE BIT WRONG----SEEMS THE INTELLECTUAL AND INTELLIGENCE LEVEL OF CONSERVATIVES AND ESSENTIALLY MOST RELIGOUS AND POLITICAL RIGHT WINGERS HAS NOT EVOLVED-----MUTATED TO PINPOINT REALITY

Tuesday 10 November

By Ed

You are so lacking in reasoning that you make it possible to believe that not only was Darwin right, but you are living proof, one generation of it!

By Billybrw

The morons running PBS turned it into the leftist channel years ago. They have their doctrine interwoven into every show they put on the air with Sesame St leading the way since the early 80s. This is nothing new, most decent folks stopped putting their children in front of it back then. Yes is was the premier show for helping poor kids stuffed in front of the boob tube all day to learn to do basic counting and word association. not anymore or for a long time though. Turn off that crap and read to your kids for that hour everyday they will have a much more prosperous life if you do.

By Ariana

How about some respect here? I'm a liberal, and as much as I disagree with conservative views, I don't call the people who run FOX morons.

Look, Sesame Street spoofs things. Law and Order, FOX, and other things. This is to humor adults, who are watching with their kids. The kids don't get it--I watched an episode with my niece and nephew awhile back which spoofed Law and Order SVU. They didn't get it--I thought it was funny. "Special Letter Unit" is what they called it, and no one got offended or said it undermined the real pain that victims feel!

If you take issue with something, address it like a responsible human being, don't hide behind a computer to call people dumb--And it's not just conservatives, liberals too.

This is why we're as a society in such a mess. We don't respect each other anymore.

By phurbee951

PBS is left-leaning? Say it ain't so! What was your first clue? LOL

By L R

Apparently the Mister Rogers show tapes were thrown away or do not have the proper message. I guess his values and kindness have no place in today*s world of raising children. The Best way to make your point if you disagree the way PBS is presenting information to your children and they ARE YOUR children is to NOT SUPPORT what you believe is BAD BEHAVIOR. No more contributions. It is better to be p*ssed off* than be p*ssed on. When it comes to YOUR children never let ANYONE influence their morality but YOU.

Page 5 of 41