This is what started all the controversy triggered earlier this week by Texas Senator Ted Cruz against Sesame Street icon Big Bird.
On November 6, CNN, partnering with Sesame Workshop once more, presented a town hall special to educate children on the COVID vaccines which are now available for children between the ages of 5-11. CNN's Erica Hll and Dr. Sanjay Gupta are the moderators, joined by Big Bird, Rosita, Granny Bird, and Elmo.
Need we add that CNN's sister network, HBO, is home to first-run episodes of Sesame Street these days? Wouldn't be surprised if this turns up on HBO or HBO Max, as well as PBS.
As we discussed earlier in the week, Senator Cruz decided to be a bully and slammed the special as "propaganda". No, it's not. Cruz and his state's governor, Greg Abbott, would rather that their citizens remain ignorant about protecting themselves, as the politicos see their state's bottom line as more important than the people they are supposed to serve. As noted previously, Big Bird acted as an avatar for earlier generation of Sesame Street viewers nearly 50 years ago in getting vaccinated for measles. Big Bird does have some celebrity backup in the form of actor-singer-producer Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy, The Orville, American Dad), who came to the eternal 6 year old's defense vs. Twitter nemesis Cruz.
I think WarnerMedia and Disney can go to their bullpens for some extra help. You know, from the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, The Avengers, Superman, et al, because kids of all ages will respond to advice from their heroes. MacFarlane did his part on Family Guy. I think H. Jon Benjamin (Bob's Burgers, Archer) could probably jump in if asked.
Notice, too, that Cruz went after Big Bird by name, but not Rosita, a Latina Muppet. Hmmmmmmm.
No comments:
Post a Comment