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Recently, I stumbled upon a news article about recent commentary by PBS ombudsman Michael Getler about viewer outrage over a parody of news networks done on Sesame Street.  Apparently, some viewers got their panties in a bunch over the reference to “Pox News” being a direct slap in the face against Fox News.  Getler, being an immense pussy about it, decides the following:

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.

Thankfully, Miranda Berry, EVP of Sesame Workshop, introduces basic common sense into this equation:

First, the show was first aired in Season 38, which premiered in August 2007. That means it was written in the fall of 2006 — long before the Fox-Obama controversy, even before Obama was president. The whole segment was a parody of CNN (called GNN) or the ‘Grouch News Network.’ Children who watch Sesame Street (and adults who remember what it felt like to be a kid watching ‘Sesame Street’) know that Oscar the Grouch is a contrarian. He lives in a trash can and loves everything ‘yucky’ and ‘disgustin.’ For a Grouch, ‘trashy’ is high praise! Not only would child viewers be unlikely to connect ‘Pox News’ to Fox News, in the context of this scene, they would understand the characters to be saying that ‘Pox News’ is better than ‘GNN.’

I mean, seriously.  To see just how mainstream this paranoia is, you need go no further than Andrew Breitbart’s total lunatic ramblings on the subject.  Check out this child-like “but I should be included too!” style rambling for a taste of what this tragedy of an article has in store for you:

Later in the episode, Anderson Cooper from 4th place CNN, guest stars as a reporter for GNN.  He interacts with “Walter Cranky” and “Dan Rather-Not” —  Muppets representing real-life liberal news personalities — and they talk about “Meredith Beware-a” and “Diane Spoiler.” But no affectionate nicknames for Fox News personalities; no Spill O’Reilly or Brittle Hume — nope, and the only disparaging characterization of real-world news is reserved for Fox:  Fox is a POX.  It is trashy.  They didn’t even attempt to try “MessyNBC.”

I can’t tell you how angry this makes me.  Sesame Street has raised multiple generations of perfectly functional children.  Even if one could register this argument with any degree of seriousness, show me the statistics.  Show me one child who has made this illogical leap as a result of this sketch.  You can’t, for if you could, I would see this child on Faux News and every other conservative GOP outlet possible.  The stunning lack of proof seems to accompany so many GOP political talking points.  We, as politically conscious people not so easily swayed by these fear mongering tactics, must continue to vote their political represenation out of office, if for no other reason than to bring a new party into the two-party system with mildly more sanity than these religious wingnuts.