The place have you ever gone, Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Huge Fowl?
In a extra harmless time, the hallowed puppets of Sesame Road have been recurring characters in congressional debates about public broadcasting. They served a significant and considerably quaint Kabuki perform: At any time when a politician questioned whether or not PBS or NPR ought to proceed to obtain authorities funding, public broadcast advocates predictably trotted out their furry or feathered pals to disarm the bullies and remind everybody how beloved these iconic creatures are. Particularly by children. Bear in mind the youngsters!
Sadly, Messrs. Elmo, Monster, and Fowl have been nowhere to be seen on Capitol Hill right now. They might not have slot in, anyway, because the proceedings in a crowded basement-level listening to room of the Capitol Customer Heart weren’t candy, accepting, or in the slightest degree neighborly.
Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, had invited the pinnacle of PBS, Paula Kerger, and of NPR, Katherine Maher, to testify earlier than the Home Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Authorities Effectivity (DOGE). As chair of the subcommittee, Greene had many questions. And, it will appear, pre-existing impressions: The listening to was titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable.” (The Atlantic has a partnership with WETA, which receives funding from PBS and the Company for Public Broadcasting.)
Greene gaveled the continuing to order at 10 a.m. “At present, we’re wanting on the greater than half a billion {dollars} federal taxpayers spend yearly to fund public radio and tv,” she mentioned in her opening assertion. She vowed to grill the witnesses about their oversight of “radical left-wing echo-chambers,” and accused the CEOs of perpetrating a “communist agenda” and being advantageous with “sexualizing and grooming kids.”
This appeared hostile.
It was probably not shocking, although. In her transient time in Congress, Greene has proved a relentless voice of MAGA grievance and one-woman Masterpiece Theatre in reacting to the most recent outrage visited upon Donald Trump. Her newly created DOGE subcommittee fashions itself as a corollary to the efforts of Elon Musk in his quest to establish and slash or remove no matter authorities work and employees he deems unworthy.
The panel rapidly fell into a well-recognized sample of Republicans and Democrats taking turns giving five-minute speeches, nominally framed as questions for the witnesses. Consultant Stephen F. Lynch of Massachusetts, the rating Democrat, devoted most of his assertion to railing in opposition to the subcommittee’s priorities. He believed that it shouldn’t be utilizing its energy to “go after the likes of Elmo and Cookie Monster,” however ought to be extra involved with attending to the underside of why high-level officers within the Trump administration texted delicate national-security materials to Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of this journal (a giant story this week, apparently). “If disgrace was nonetheless a factor, this listening to can be shameful,” Lynch mentioned.
James Comer, the Republican chair of the Home Oversight Committee, mentioned that he used to take heed to NPR whereas engaged on a farm throughout his rural Kentucky youth. He spoke with a measure of nostalgic fondness for the outlet, till his inevitable pivot. “I don’t even acknowledge NPR anymore,” lamented Comer, who now dismisses the outlet as “propaganda.”
Even when the Sesame Road characters weren’t bodily current, Democrats have been keen to use the present’s recurring bits to Trump’s conduct within the White Home. “To borrow a phrase from Sesame Road, the letter of the day is ‘C’—for corruption,” Greg Casar, of Texas, mentioned. “Depart Elmo alone!” he pleaded.
Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, had pointed questions for Kerger, of PBS. He wished to know whether or not Elmo’s ruddy complexion signaled some troubling political sympathies. “Is Elmo now or has he ever been a member of the Communist Occasion of the USA?” he requested. Garcia additionally wished to know if Bert and Ernie had an extremist liberal agenda. He gave the impression to be kidding.
The spectacle lasted a number of hours and was largely forgettable. Nevertheless it illustrated how one other entrenched (and considerably goofy) Washington custom—wrangling over whether or not to defund public broadcasting—has devolved into low-cost and predictable posturing. Theoretically, it ought to be potential to carry a superbly reputable debate over whether or not public cash ought to subsidize radio and TV shops—and to do it with out the chair of the subcommittee accusing PBS of being “one of many founders of the trans youngster abuse business.”
Alas, this was to not be right now. The listening to room emptied out round lunchtime, and that was it for conducting the nation’s enterprise.
This text was delivered to you by the latter “D”—for miserable.
