If congressional lawmakers need further evidence for why the federal government should cut public funding to the Public Broadcasting Station, they need not look further than Sesame Street. According to Ben Shapiro, author of the new book Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV, Sesame Street is just another tool in the left-wing propaganda machine.
The description of Shapiro’s new book explains that the book “is the story-told in their own words-of how television has been used over the past sixty years by Hollywood writers, producers, actors, and executives to promote their liberal ideals, to push the envelope on social and political issues, and to shape American in their own leftist image.”
The Blaze reports that the agenda does not exclude children’s programs:
Sesame Street, with its loveable and fuzzy characters, is really a mouthpiece for the left’s agenda. That’s the conclusion of author Ben Shapiro, who after interviewing hundreds of industry insiders found that many of Hollywood’s most popular shows, including the popular kids program, are inundated with secret political messages. And he got top executives to admit it.
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Sesame Street founding executive Mike Dann admitted that Sesame Street “was not made for the sophisticated or the middle class.” According to Shapiro, the program worked in a number of liberal messages, including Grover breaking bread with a hippie, and Oscar the Grouch addressing “conflicts arising from racial and ethnic diversity.”
Shapiro indicates, “Sesame Street tried to tackle divorce, tackled ‘peaceful conflict resolution in the aftermath of 9/11 and had [gay actor] Neil Patrick Harris on the show playing the subtly-named ‘fairy shoeperson.’ ”
As noted by The Blaze, the news should come as no surprise. After all, the show’s most popular character, Elmo, has been used to spread a message of wealth redistribution by way of free broadband, bemoaning job loss in a commercial plugging a new local government initiative called Families Stand Together, and plugging First Lady Michelle Obama’s child nutrition bill.
Last October, The Stir noted what it perceived to be proof of Sesame Street’s liberal agenda, listing five items:
• They are LGBT-friendly. According to Popeater, “The buzz machine lit up with speculation that Bert, the single-browed longtime roommate of Ernie, may have winkingly come out of the closet as gay in a Twitter post: ‘Ever notice how similar my hair is to Mr. Ts? The only difference is mine is a little more ‘mo,’ a little less ‘hawk,’ the puppet tweeted.”
• They like boobs: The Stir cites guest appearances of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry as indicative that Sesame Street is teaching children that it is okay to be sexual. Katy Perry’s appearance in particular prompted a number of complaints from parents concerned by Perry’s revealing top. The clip ultimately was cut from the show.
• They encourage people to be “green”: We all know that environmentalists are a bunch of Patchouli-scented hippies, running around claiming that global warming is a “real thing” (sure, sure). Sesame Street just encourages these lies and then sells them to our kids. It’s a travesty!
• They encourage healthy eating: While such a campaign is certainly not a bad thing, it seizes upon the left-wing ideology that parents are no longer adequate enough to ensure healthy lifestyles for their children.
Likewise, a cursory glance of Sesame Street’s programming over the last decade reveals that despite its touted intent of promoting multiculturalism and diversity, the show very rarely ventures outside of celebrating the Hispanic and African culture without giving balanced attention to European and even American cultures.
Shapiro’s book also contends that the left-wing messages are not limited to children’s programs. Adults are also being indoctrinated, and not just in blatant cases like with Family Guy and The Daily Show, but in subtle cases. The Independent explains:
The TV series Friends undermined family values; Sesame Street taught ethnic minorities about civil disobedience; Happy Days had a subtle anti-Vietnam subtext; and the 1980s cop show MacGyver tried to persuade pistol-packing Americans that guns are bad.
Marta Kauffman, the co-creator of Friends, admitted that she purposefully cast Newt Gingrich’s sister in the role of the preacher at the show’s lesbian wedding in 1999 to irk conservatives.
“When we did the lesbian wedding, we knew there was going to be some flack,” Kauffman said. “I have to say, when we cast Candice Gingrich as the minister of that wedding, there was a bit of a f*** you’ in it to the right-wing, directly.”
While most are shocked by willingness of the Hollywood crowd to confess some of these secrets, Shapiro contends that some stereotypes may have come into play.
“There was a certain amount of stereotyping on their part in granting the interview,” he said. “Many probably assumed that with a name like Shapiro and a Harvard Law credential, there was no need to Google me — I would have to be a leftist. In Hollywood, talking to a Jew with a Harvard Law baseball cap is like talking to someone wearing an Obama pin.”
However, Shapiro did admit to being surprised by the confessions regarding the level of conservative discrimination within the industry.
“I was shocked by the openness of the Hollywood crowd when it came to admitting anti-conservative discrimination inside the industry. They weren’t ashamed of it. In fact, some were actually proud of it,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro’s newest book may certainly prove to be useful for Republican lawmakers who contend that Sesame Street is no longer eligible for federal funding.
