Castrate Me Elmo

Remember the old days of the so-called "Republican revolution," when the Final Net-encrusted mullahs of the extreme right set their beady sights on public broadcasting? Once again, these radicalized culture haters are going in for the kill, hoping to eviscerate Terry Gross, Elmo and Jim Lehrer in the process.

The Washington Post reports:

"A House subcommittee voted yesterday to sharply reduce the federal government's financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children's educational programs as 'Sesame Street,' 'Reading Rainbow,' 'Arthur' and 'Postcards From Buster.'"

This was the small-cranium, James Dobson faction of the House tipping their tiny hats to Kenneth Tomlinson, Bush's new head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees PBS and National Public Radio. Tomlinson is the former editor of Reader's Digest, and rode herd on Grandma's bathroom reading material back when they would run anti-Democratic broadsides and social-conservative, dystopian fantasies about a future U.S. that has devolved into a Third World trash heap thanks to video games and heavy metal. Plus, who can forget "Drama in Real Life" segments along the lines of "I'm Buried Alive!" and "Ferret Attack!"

Since taking office, Tomlinson has been railing about alleged liberal bias at PBS and NPR, although polls commissioned by the CPB itself suggest that the public begs to differ with this movement-conservative tightass. He has appointed Republican watchdogs to pore over tapes and footage, looking for any bugaboos such as too much airtime for "the opposition party" or cartoon aardvarks engaging in civil disobedience at Bush's Social Security rallies.

Of course, conservative talking heads have railed against PBS and NPR for years, but one of the most obnoxiously and demonstrably incorrect lines of reasoning has come from George Will, who has said on ABC's This Week that PBS is irrelevant or redundant thanks to cable content. He is fond of pointing out A&E as evidence that "Arts & Entertainment" is fully represented on cable.

Has he ever watched A&E? Do Dog the Bounty Hunter or Growing Up Gotti, Intervention, Criss Angel Mindfreak, Sell This House or endless reruns of Third Watch or CSI: Miami seriously go head-to-head with Masterpiece Theater or Evening at Pops?

Common Cause has a petition up against Tomlinson. Go to this link and tell Tomlinson and his cohort to stop screwing with the Cookie Monster.