Free Republic

It’s brought to you by the letter P — for prison. PBS’s “Sesame Street” is moving from ABCs and counting numbers to offering its young viewers a bigger lesson in life: how to cope when Mommy or Daddy lands behind bars. Called “Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration,” the program is distributing “tool kits’’ to schools, community centers and even jails in 10 states — including New York — starting today to help kids ages 3 to 8, organizers said. According to one “tip’’ for caregivers, “Before you visit your incarcerated loved one, let your child know some of the things...

How many of you viewed this when it aired on PBS? Apparently, not too many. I missed it as well. For some strange reason, it is still up on YouTube. In 52 minutes, it explains that our hundreds of "security" agencies are collections of turf-defending bureaucrats who don't talk to one another and probably can't find their asses with both hands -- but they can find YOUR emails and phone contacts! If this -- especially the PRE-911 section -- doesn't make you furious, you're either not paying attention, don't give a s**t or are a low-information "voter" -- or worse....

The long-running news show formerly helmed by Jim Lehrer will make its first major layoffs in nearly 20 years, The New York Times reported Tuesday. The company will close its offices in San Francisco and Denver, and eliminate some of its production positions at its Washington, D.C. headquarters. "The PBS Newshour's" executive producer said that the program hoped to "build new relationships with a variety of locally based freelance video journalists around the country." "A steady drop in corporate revenue" contributed to the program's decision to cut back.

The makers of Sesame Street decided to design and release an educational kit titled "Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration." The kit is "an educational outreach initiative for families with children (ages 3 – 8) who are coping with a parent’s incarceration." Can you imagine telling a five-year-old about prison? "Our resources," say Sesame Streeters, "provide talking points and tools to help families manage the changes resulting from this situation and to find comfort in one another."

On his Thursday night PBS program, Charlie Rose attempted to fulfill his duties as a liberal media member by defending the State Department’s dishonest talking points following the September 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi. Rose was grilling Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who was involved in the Benghazi hearings, about his views on the matter. When Rose asked Chaffetz if he believed there was a coverup, the congressman was ready. He brought up the fact that for days after the attack, the administration claimed the incident had been sparked by a spontaneous demonstration over an anti-Islam YouTube video. But Chaffetz and...

I just saw this ad for a new PBS show called Constitution USA, which premiers this week. According to the ad, the show seeks to answer the question: "Does the Constitution have what it takes to keep up with the lives, limits and freedoms of modern America?" Judging purely by the ad, I'd say that our Constitution is in for a real shellacking at the hands of PBS. Here's an excerpt of a review of the show by Variety: Sagal (host of NPR’s “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!”) frames the discussion with a gimmick, riding across the U.S. on red,...

Keep refreshing…Beginning at 6:55pm, watch the PBS taping of a salute to Memphis Soul live from the White House right here. The actual edited show airs on Aprul 16th. The show will use Justin Timberlake as bait for the contemporary audience. But the real reasons to watch are the Stax Records stars who made it onto the lineup including Mavis Staples, Sam Moore, Booker T. Jones– who will sing, which is rare–William Bell, as well as Cyndi Lauper and Queen Latifah. Al Green was supposed to be on the show, but no one could find him. Or they found him...

Though the White House has been singing the sequester blues, the Obamas still have managed to scrape together enough cash to throw a star-studded concert celebrating "Memphis Soul" later this month. The White House announced Tuesday that the 10th concert in its "In Performance at the White House" series would go on April 16. Set to perform are Al Green, Ben Harper, Queen Latifah, Cyndi Lauper and Justin Timberlake, among many others. Though the White House last month decided to suspend official tours of the "people's house" citing the sequester, the budget cuts apparently have not impeded the concert schedule....

See PBS page.

For girls born after women were appointed to the Supreme Court, "Makers: Women Who Make America" is a history lesson. The three-hour special that airs at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, on PBS is naturally not just for younger women. It is for everyone — those who relished victories whenever women won higher office, experienced fury when colleagues made sexual advances or were frustrated when schools allocated money only for boys sports. It's for males and females — those who suffered the indignities and fought to change the world and those for whom the ERA is only a baseball stat....

So Downton Abbey‘s message is an anti-class warfare one. The fact is that the spirit of the critics is hard left, and maybe that’s why Downton Abbey makes them so angry, because the success of the series shows that this group does not speak for America. It also shows something equally important to the future of our culture: that there is no inherent need for good TV to be left of center. Stories sympathetic to virtue, preservation of property and admiration of nobility and of wealth can be told beautifully and to wide audiences, and I suspect they will be...

On February 1, 2003, seven astronauts on board Space Shuttle Columbia died during re-entry as they returned to Earth from the STS-107 mission. Friday was the 10th anniversary of the disaster, but none of the Big Three networks morning newscasts marked this somber occasion. ABC's Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and NBC's Today understandably devoted considerable broadcast time to the upcoming Super Bowl on Sunday. However, this coverage contained segments to frivolous, celebrity-driven stories that could have been whittled down to air even a mere brief on the anniversary of the tragedy. Here are examples from each morning show:...

these two video clips prove difi's goals are to confiscate all guns. she lied recenty on pbs, and an interview regarding her 1994 attempt proves she lied. this is exactly what they want. she admits it was her goal all along. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k3DKuN2ey80&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dk3DKuN2ey80%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded

<p>A fourth accuser is coming forward to claim he engaged in underage sex with former "Sesame Street" puppeteer Kevin Clash.</p> <p>On Monday, Florida-based attorney Jeff Herman filed his third lawsuit alleging that Clash, now 52, engaged in sex with minors. Herman also has filed suits on behalf of two of the previous three accusers.</p>

The PBS NewsHour has yet to invite a strong conservative on the program to talk about the fiscal cliff. Tuesday night they had New York Times columnist, left-wing economist, and Obama cheerleader Paul Krugman to detail his view. Wednesday night they had moderately-conservative Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn), but last night was the most interesting. PBS invited the Norquist of the left, Max Richtman, of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, who insisted we shouldn’t be in a rush to reform our entitlement spending. After all, when the unfunded liability of both programs is around $100 trillion, what’s...

A second man has come forward saying he had sex with Kevin Clash, the voice of “Sesame Street” character Elmo, when the accuser was a teenage minor, according to a report. -snip- Cecil Singleton, who is now in his 30s, said he and Clash hooked up on a gay phone sex line in 1993 when he was 15 and the muppeteer was 32, according to a new $5 million lawsuit reported by TMZ. Singleton said Clash “trolled” phone sex lines to meet boys and wooed him with gifts of cash and fancy dinners, the lawsuit said, according to TMZ. Clash...

The man who voices the puppet of Elmo on Sesame Street has taken leave amid allegations he had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy. Kevin Clash, 52, has taken a leave of absence from the popular children's show after the programme's lawyers were contacted by a 23-year-old man who claims he had a sexual relationship with the puppeteer seven years ago, when he was aged 16. TMZ, who reported the allegations, said that Mr Clash had admitted he had a relationship with the man, but only after the accuser was an adult and said the accusations were both false...

Tourists in downtown Washington, D.C. may have been confused by a small, colorful gathering on the mall on Saturday, as a group of activists came together for the “Million Puppet March” with a message of government support for PBS. While the Count may have been disappointed – the assembled crowd for this million-strong march was a few hundred at most – the activists in their cobbled-together homemade costumes did their best. Big Bird, Grover and the Wild Things took pictures with fans in a sea of Obama/Biden signs and ‘Puppets Unite!’ posters. For anyone walking to the Smithsonian museums, they...

Bring your favorite puppet 11/3 to Lincoln Park, Washington DC at 10am ET with a march to Capitol Reflecting Pool by 1:00pm ET for rally.

In August, I blasted the Commission on Presidential Debate’s choices of three Beltway lib journo-tools — CNN’s Candy Crowley, PBS’s Jim Lehrer and CBS’s Bob Schieffer. So far, they’ve acted just as expected and predicted. As I noted: While the debate panel trumpeted the gender diversity of its picks, the chromosomal diversity is far outweighed by the political uniformity, class conformity and geographical homogeneity of the group. ... The presidential debates are the last bastion of “mainstream” media self-delusion in the 21st century. They are a ritual laughingstock for tens of millions of American viewers who have put up with...