The Liberal Bias on Sesame Street…

Fox News amuses me but scares the shit out of me too. It’s a news network like this that makes me think that the society like the one described in “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood could actually come to pass.

“We’re robbing them of the earlier ages of their childhood, they know more they do more…”

So wait, the less kids know the better?

I’m so glad they were able to use the expertise of Miss America to confirm their fears…

Seriously…I have no tolerance for people like Ken Blackwell. His rant at 1:01 was the biggest pile of stupid I’ve heard in a good while.

And, it’s not so much that Hollywood has a liberal bias. First, Hollywood has a money bias. It just so turns out that if Hollywood were to make a movie seeking to glorify slavery, no one would see it.

What’s amazing his how easily and flagrantly they make generalizations about all liberals ever, as though everyone gets a newsletter that they’re supposed to follow or something.

I got to 1:32 before having to turn it off. RAAAAGE!

A television show making a political statement? Nooooo they can’t do that!!

It’s kind of sad though that the statements being made by these liberal shows are things like “Be good to people”, “Accept each other”, “sharing is good” etc.

It’s not really that Hollywood has a liberal bias. It’s that they have a money bias. It just so turns out that if Paramount Pictures were to make a movie glorifying slavery as a positive institution, no one would see it, and they’d lose money.

FOX is no exception either. While they’re obviously conservative, they have no problem airing shows that have clear liberal “agendas” like the Simpsons, Family Guy, or Glee. Why? Because it’s all about fucking money. And FOX News is just about that: airing partisan propaganda for advertising money.

Besides, if they want to complain about there being a liberal bias, they should set an example by giving Keith Olbermann or Jon Stewart or even me a job. Otherwise, it’s just another case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Notice how Hannity talks right over Miss America as though she’s not there, but doesn’t do it to his male guests.

Luciferadi- I noticed that too. Talking over guests to tell them what shows you watched as a kid… real important news there.

I love how Ben Shapiro has no problem talking about taking beloved preschool characters out back to “cap ‘em”, but then he couldn’t say the F word…

Ah yes. The world would be just perfect if it weren’t for those darn liberals… they keep ruining everything!!!

Ugh! Facepalm. Took me until Blackwell opened his mouth then I wanted to vomit. Enough! This is so pitiful!

Holy crap! I only wish the left was organized & well-funded enough to *have* a conspiracy such as these three airhead perceive!

I also love Hannity’s ignorant statement toward the end that implies none of these “liberal” Hollywood types have charities set up. That’s right, because only Republicans set up charity organizations. Fucking Fox News, how does it work?

One of the earliest episodes that undoubtedly pissed off the ultra conservatives concerned the death of Mr. Hooper.

Will Lee, the actor who played Mr. Hooper, died in late 1982.

From Wiki: “After considering a number of options, CTW decided to have the character of Mr. Hooper die as well, and use the episode to teach its young viewers about death as a natural part of life and that it is OK for everyone—children and adults alike—to grieve when someone they love dies. The cause of Mr. Hooper’s death was not announced, euphemisms such as “passed away” were not used, and the issue was dealt with directly.”

No “Muppet God from the Sky” folks, just honesty and compassion. If not outright atheist, it was at least humanist in nature. It taught children something real, something that was important – in language they could understand.

The Far Right can’t let them get away with crap like THAT can they?

Nice that we have Fox News working overtime to rid the media of “bias”.

Next, Gingrich will extol the virtues of marital fidelity and Sarah Palin will give us all a history lesson.

I think the Great American Panel should be renamed the Great Right Wing Circlejerk.

American conservatives speak with so much paranoia, that it’s baffling to listen to them. I hate to sound like a judgmental foreigner but this ‘us vs. them’ attitude and their role as victims and defenders of American rights seems so polarizing.

American left seems to have the highest patience of anyone in the world to be able to put up with all this garbage.

@J What’s sad is these idiots run our country.

The people this guy has interviewed have been very open and candid about their leanings and intentions. So this isn’t just some crackpot conspiracy theory (as Hemant seems to think it is).

I fail to see why I should believe anything Ben Shapiro says. Why the hell would anyone in Hollywood admit to the things he says they said given his fairly well known views?

Looking at his other writings, I’ll even be generous and say that he probably even believes these people said that to him, much like those who believe they Elvis Presley is a personal friend and alive and well. Hell, look at the people who wrote soundbite endorsements for his latest book. Please tell me why I should believe what he says any more than I’d believe Andrew Breitbart (or Michael Moore, for that matter).

Hannity grew up watching I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners (don’t get me started on Ralph threatening his wife with violence) and The Andy Griffith Show? Is he 70? Because if so, he has aged nicely. Most of us in our 40s grew up watching Happy Days and The Jeffersons.

Considering that this is an atheist blog I’m surprised that no one here has pointed out the obvious irony in Ken Blackwell’s statement at 1:14. He implies that there is a problem with being informed by fiction, but being the good little creationist and Bible-thumper that he is, he will be doing the exact same thing in his belief in the Bible.

Then there is Hannity opining at 2:56 about liberals thinking their morality is so superior (which A FEW probably do), yet he and his panelists are basically saying the exact same thing. They are claiming that their family-church based morality is superior, they seem to think that society should “return” to their form of morality.

If liberals are sanctimonious, then the conservatives on this panel are hypocrites. They won’t tolerate liberals from spreading their own morality, but they don’t mind trying to spread their conservative morality. Hypocrites.

Another point, considering that these people would prefer that education be privatised, why should we believe that they have the best interests for children’s education? Blackwell would rather have children believing the Earth is 6,000 years old than be provided a proper education.

As for Hannity asking why these “Hollywood liberal-types” don’t form charities and put their wealth into them, the last I checked they do. Christopher Reeve started a foundation to support and fund stem-cell research, Michael J. Fox did the same for Parkinsons, and that is just the beginning. And what about Bill gates? Not exactly a member of liberal Hollywood, but he does fund humanitarian causes worldwide.

Hannity and his cohorts are exactly what Shapiro said: they are the bourgeoisie. And going by the history I have just learnt over the last three months from real historians, the bourgeoisie tend to get overthrown eventually.

It is clear the problem these people have is with anyone who helps the lower classes and unprivileged get out of the holes they are in. Charity, humanitarism, and tolerance are traits that are alien to these people.

Sesame Street is a beautiful illustration of the concept of “infinite diversity in infinite combinations”, man. And this guy… this guy is knocking that?

What’s he been smoking?

At the end one of them talked about our society moving away from people who earned money having a right to have money towards people who want money having a right to have money. I think what he really meant was that we are starting to hold people ever so slightly accountable for the people are resources they exploit to make their fortunes and are trying to give a fraction of what people are cheated out of back to them. At least that is what he would have to mean to not be completely full of it.

“Liberals believe people are basically good, and conservatives believe people are basically bad.”

Where does that leave me? I hold to both positions; I believe that humans are both basically good and evil. I guess according to them I’m neither a liberal nor a conservative, but that is fine by me anyway.

More importantly though, that reveals the hallmark of their Protestant influences. Standard Protestant theology/philosophy says that humans are inherently bad/fallen, and that each person alone must raise themselves above that bad/fallen state. The catch is that the only role for authorities in that philosophy is to free the person from the forces that prevent them from rising out of that state, once every person has that freedom they are on their own. In a way Protestantism, of the conservative and evangelical type at least, is anti-social; they view all attempts for humans to help one another as a form of socialism, which as far as they are concerned is synonymous with communism.

thorarin, take note of the fact that one of them basically talked of the bourgeoisie as if it was a good thing. I’m sure these people would actually love to have a caste based society just like what India has, if it was offered to them. And I’m sure they would just love for there to be a group of people just like the Dalits (the Untouchables). In fact they would probably want most of the people to be in that group; unable to rise out of the hole they are in on their own so these privileged assholes can be as greedy and selfish as they want.

The liberal bias part is not in question, that’s 100% clear. The rage expressed on this forum comes from not agreeing with people who don’t like the way it’s slanted.

“Liberals believe people are basically good, and conservatives believe people are basically bad.”

Not exactly, but from my experience, Liberals are angrier more often than Conservatives simply because they have an idealistic view and think of the world as it “should” be as opposed to the way it is. Conservatives are more likely to feel that life is hard, so consequently they aren’t surprised when it is.

Thank God we have both viewpoints to balance things out. Either extreme is unsettling.

Blacksheep wrote:

there are often different viewponts on things… what’s the deal with people being furious over other peoples viewpoints? they’re not speaking about being pro slavery or advocating child porography, they simply have values that you don’t agree with!

They also happen to be “values” that don’t agree with how women should be treated, who should have a say over a woman’s own body, how sexuality is viewed, how GLBT people should be seen and treated plus a whole slew of other, to me, negative “values.”

Your list of intoxicants act through a variety of chemical actions on the brain’s neurochemistry, generally by disrupting “communication,” not by inducing cell death.

a distinction without a difference, my friend.

drugs: why do we take them? because they alter our chemistry- brain, body or otherwise. are they “good” for our bodies? mostly, no. that was my point. i use some drugs, rX and otherwise. but i don’t kid myself. they work because they alter how my brain and body function. and not always in a “healthy” way.” that was my point.

With conservatives it’s often not so much about their opinion as such, but they way they express it. Some of the things they say are said so stupidly that you can feel your brain die as you watch.

But GentleGiant is right that some things aren’t merely opinions. There are things you can’t simple agree to disagree about. And not every issue has two sides.

That sounded like they were trying to fit all the right-wing buzzwords into that tiny segment