Author claims that Sesame Street and other shows are left-wing propaganda tools
By Jeff MillsMay 30th, 2011, 7:30 pmComments (29)
Twenty-seven-year-old Ben Shapiro is a conservative writer and columnist who did some interesting legwork for his new book, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV. Shapiro interviewed over seventy industry bigwigs in his quest to expose the left-wing bias that has allegedly infiltrated television programming in the last several decades. Shapiro believes he was granted his unique access as a right-winger thanks to certain assumptions. He says:
"There was a certain amount of stereotyping on their part in granting the interview. 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."
Poking around, Shapiro learns some interesting behind-the-scenes details. For instance, Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman informs him that she hired a "bunch of liberals" to run the show, and also cast Newt Gingrich's sister, Candice, to play a minister at a lesbian wedding as an f-you to right-wingers.
Sesame Street is hammered pretty hard, whether it's for Grover vibing with a hippie, or Fox News slyly being referenced as "Pox News." And Jill Biden and Michelle Obama's high-profile cameo speaks for itself.
Happy Days writer Bill Bickley tells Shapiro that there was an anti-Vietnam subtext permeating the show, which was actually pretty obvious in retrospect, when you recall Fonzi's antipathy towards Robert McNamara. (Or Mrs. C's dove-shaped oven mitt.)
MacGyver was anti-gun, M*A*S*H had a pacifist agenda, Ann Coulter gave it a glowing blurb, you get the idea. The notion that Richard Nixon appearing on Laugh-In could be an electoral difference-maker in the '68 presidential race sounds crazy, but is perhaps the case. Since cathode rays are pretty much synonymous with brainwashing, the whole Manchurian Candidate intrigue supposedly infecting the boob tube may be less far-fetched than it sounds. When you consider Sesame Street's target demo, it's hard to deny that it's less about the sabre than the rattle.
Comments ( 29 )
You know people have been saying this for decades now, right? Hardly "news."
The author, Ben Shapiro, is 27. Anything that happened prior to the last 5 years of his life he thinks is "news."
Self-selecting bias. It is as simple an explanation as this.
_
https://googledisappointsme.blogspot.com/
Pretty much. Although I think what it comes down to, whether liberal or conservative, people should take a bit more responsibility for what they watch. TV can't "brainwash" you without your permission.
People (well, creatures) of different backgrounds actually getting along together. "Conservatives" like Shapiro hate that.
BECAUSE ONLY LIBERALS CAN BE PACIFISTS IT ALL MAKES SENSE.
But srsly, there is a lot I could say about this but it would all be pointless.
Oh very clever, start off with some hyperbole, all in caps, as if that somehow made it louder or more insightful. While ignoring the fact that it's one of your own accusing liberals of being pacifist, simultaneously giving off the impression that pacifism is somehow a negative characteristic. And then withdraw, claiming something more to add, but refusing to do so, on the basis that it would be pointless, presumably because you think the other commenters here too stupid to understand your no doubt subtle yet incisive counterpoints. Of course it could also be you've got nothing coherent to say. Can't support any of your absurd notions and fantastical beliefs with evidence, and your juvenile ego, wouldn't be able to cope with your own failings being made so plain, so publicly.
Pretty sure he was being sarcastic, with the all-caps being an indicator of same. You seem to have read into it a fair bit, though.
Poe's law: Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won't mistake it for the genuine article. Caps lock is an indicator of nothing but the use caps lock.
I would argue that the caps lock in fact is a blatant display of humor, combined with the syntax (IT ALL MAKES SENSE is a pretty typical catchphrase for making fun of crazed ranters) and the fact that he drops the caps lock to make a discouraged comment about the article afterwards. Anyway! What I'm saying is that I read the comment a little differently. I do see what you mean, though; I think tone of voice can carry in print, but clearly two people can read the same thing and come to very certain and very different conclusions.
Oh my, the secrets been revealed. Grow up young man.
Yeah, Sesame street is liberal if telling children "sharing is caring" is communist.
But the majority of hollywood is liberal, I hear it is in vogue out west.
Well, jeez, of course they are. Especially those lessons about sharing.
Sharing may lead to socialism. It must be stamped out entirely.
Nixon was on Laugh-In, not Hee Haw (though that would have probably been more appropriate)
Nixon appeared on both Laugh-In and Hee Haw.
Shapiro is an Orthodox Jew, so any 'conclusions' he arrives at must be interpreted in light of his profound religious stupidity. I suppose if Sesame Street advocated slaughtering everyone who wasn't a part of the chosen tribe, as Yahweh does repeatedly throughout the Torah, Shapiro would be happy and all would be well with the world.
I'm surprised he didn't do an "expose" about how Ernie and Bert are brainwashing children to be gay, and then pat himself on his back for thinking he is the first person to come up with that idea.
I've always wondered about those two.
Robert Lichter's Center for Media and Public Affairs did research in this area over 20 years ago. Any so-called bias with PBS was not found (they took a scientific approach looking at all programming over a year, including an examination of sponsorship).
As for some of the other points being made, there was no question that M*A*S*H was putting forth an anti-war agenda, with analogies to VietNam.
re: M*A*S*H: As did the original film. Was Shapiro aware of the pic?
Almost certainly not, Ed. The whole reason the TV show was so novel, was that it was the FIRST TIME anybody had dared to put anything anti - war on the always-conservative tube. It's success served to demonstrate how liberal the American people actually are.
And how long the public would put up with a show once it jumped the shark.
To one of today's thoughtless conservatives, any educational tv show--or anything educational at all--is deeply suspicious.
Actually to todays conservatives (thoughtless is mostly redundant) anything which is not unmitigated right wing party line on-message agit prop is OBVIOUSLY liberal nonsense - and brainwashing our youth to think unpatriotic and probably unclean thoughts to boot.
Goddamn hippies.
There is PBS bias to the left as are MOST TV shows, but a lot of the PBS sponsors are defense based corporations. So it balances out. M*A*S*H and Sesame Street are great shows despite their leanings. I think it's fine to shine a light on these things from time to time, even though for it's painfully obvious for many of us.
I appreciate your very real moderation, but you make my point; because most TV shows don't actively bend over backwards to present a POINTEDLY hard right wing "message", you perceive them as OBVIOUSLY liberal propaganda. You have been trained to locate the political center a very considerable distance to the right of where it actually is - and has always been - in this country. White looks white, but to you, gray, charcoal, absolutely anything not pure white - is black.
You're wrong.
I'm not wrong. I know for a fact some networks have a political bias. Fox and company off to right, NBC, PBS, etc. off to the left. Discovery Channel in the middle somewhere. Some people don't think about that, so writing a book illustrating some instances for the novice viewer is fine by me. ( And gray and charcoal look gray and charcoal to me.)
Come on. It's just that intelligent people can also get jobs on tv.
Add a Comment