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Saturday, July 07, 2007

Who doesn't like Fred Rogers? Fox News and ...

This week, Fox and Friends had on a guest (the "expert" in these matters, a finance professor at Louisiana State University) who was arguing that Fred Rogers was a blight on society. part of the discussion included this:

Mr. Rogers had an optimistic message where everyone was special even if they didn’t deserve it.

Who else shares Fox News' disdain for Mr. Rogers? Why, the good folks at Westboro Baptist Church. Following Rogers death in 2003 there was a protest organized by Reverend Phelps and company: (pdf of poster here)

It's really bad when you're shoulder-to-shoulder with the Westboro Baptist Church.

UPDATE: Apparently dissing Mr. Rogers was going too far. The "expert" Fox had on to promote the "Mr. Rogers is bad for kids" segment has pulled back and issued a statement:

The reference to Mr. Rogers was just a metaphor. I have no professional qualifications to evaluate the real problems or propose solutions. Mr. Rogers was a great American. I watched him with my children and wouldn’t hesitate to do so again if I had young children.

Nevertheless, the evidence stands. Fox News broadcasts nonsense.

UPDATE: In comments, Rockie the Dog notes that this column in the Wall Street Journal was the starting point for the Fox discussion.

posted by Quiddity at 7/07/2007 09:24:00 AM

4 comments

What sad, sad people!!

djmm

By Anonymous, at 7/07/2007 5:45 PM

Fox News would rather preschoolers watch The 300.

By kelley b., at 7/07/2007 7:38 PM

The Wall Street Journal did it too: here

Doesn't look like too many changes will have to be made to be on the Murdock team.

By Anonymous, at 7/08/2007 9:38 AM

REVEREND Mr. Rogers is disdained by regressives because his nurturant model of child rearing (the one cognitive and developmental psychology indicate works best) directly threaten their "strict father" based heirarchical morality wherein specialness is derived from merit and merit is derived from succeeding in preordained competitive arenas. Children must earn that special feeling in order to deserve it? I guess the contested issue here is what do we, and Mr. Rogers, mean by the term "special"?

The quote offered, "Mr. Rogers had an optimistic message where everyone was special even if they didn’t deserve it.", perfectly illustrates the underlying regressiive morality alluded to in my comments. He is a threat to their worldview because he expands which behaviors are acceptable for male authority figures as well as the model of intellectual and moral development of children. His philosophy is a direct challenge to their authoritarian metaphor.

And tangentially, Fred Rogers threatened the very corporate profit motive of the media in his supreme court testimony on behalf of Betamax in a copyright lawsuit.

By Enterik, at 7/10/2007 9:46 AM