Oklahoma Gov Murders Oklahoma PBS, For The Children

Kevin Stitt is still an asshole.

Last week, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed a bill that would’ve funded Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA), the state’s PBS affiliate, through 2026. Republicans have long resented public television and really any public good, but Stitt’s opposition sounded a familiar fascist tune. PBS's content is just too damn woke .

“Some of the stuff that they’re showing, it just overly sexualizes our kids,” he said. “There are parents defending child transition on PBS that’s being played. There's elevating LGBTQIA2S+ voices.”

From The Independent:  

[Stitt's] office provided numerous examples of supposedly objectionable instances of PBS programming to Fox News. Some were typical of the recent anti-transgender panic: A reading of The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish by drag queen Little Miss Hot Mess, while others were more in line with the typical efforts by conservative Republicans to paint any mention of LGBT persons as “propaganda” in support of some sinister political agenda.

In that vein, the governor’s office took issue with a PBS Newshour segment where persons who supported the use of puberty blockers were interviewed, as well as a depiction of a same-sex marriage on the show Odd Squad. 

PBS acknowledges that queer people exist, despite right-wingers' deeply held religious beliefs, and Stitt won't stand for it. Unless the overwhelmingly Republican Legislature can override his veto, the state PBS affiliate will cease operations this year. Yes, Republicans passed the bill in the first place, but defying Stitt on this specific issue risks painting themselves as "groomers."

PREVIOUSLY:

 Gross Gov. Kevin Stitt Asks God To Have His Way With Oklahoma 

 Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt Discovers That Being An A-hole Can Be Bad For Your Electoral Prospects 

   OK Gov. Kevin Stitt Will Keep Guns In Dangerous People’s Hands Over Your Dead Body 

  There was obvious backlash to Stitt's veto, which I assume he wanted all along. He was defiantly prissy during a Fox News Digital interview Monday:

“You know, the big, big question is why are we spending taxpayer dollars to prop up or compete with the private sector and run television stations?" he said. "And then when you go through all of the programing that’s happening and the indoctrination and over-sexualization of our children, it’s just really problematic, and it doesn’t line up with Oklahoma values.”

The answer to Stitt‘s "big, big question" is that public funding enables quality television that would not survive direct competition with "NCIS" or even "The Masked Singer." PBS airs the excellent "Finding My Roots," "Great Performances," "Masterpiece," among others. PBS Kids has "Sesame Street" and my son’s personal favorites "Dinosaur Train" and "Wild Kratts." Stitt would torch it all out of spite.

However, he insists there's nothing for regular folks to worry about, because "there’s so much television, there’s so much media."

“Maybe in 1957 you could have made an argument that you needed a public television station," he blathered on. "That’s totally outdated at this point.”

Yes, the governor of a rural state doesn't understand why anyone would need public TV when there's so much digital television available. Kenneth Busby, a board member of Friends of OETA and CEO of the Route 66 Alliance, points out that OETA's "broadcast towers are how we inform a lot of rural Oklahoma about disasters like tornadoes and thunderstorms."

But maybe Stitt thinks weather is gay.

"When you think about educating kids, let's teach them to read and their numbers and counting and letters and those kind of things," he said. "I mean, some of the programing that we're seeing … it just doesn't need to be on public television. Oklahoma taxpayers are going, 'Hey, hang on, time out for just a second. That's not my values.'"

Public television has not suddenly gone "woke," and the programming Stitt finds most objectionable is arguably not as controversial or daring as the May 9, 1969, episode of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

 youtu.be 

Host Fred Rogers invited Black police Officer Francois Clemmons to cool his feet with him in a plastic wading pool. They even shared a towel. But in 1969, just a few years after the Civil Rights Act, pools across the country were still refusing entrance to Black people. Mr. Rogers showed the children watching how to live without prejudice and fear. That was a deliberate political statement.

From the Chicago Reporter:  

By the early 1970s, most of America’s urban amusement parks like Cleveland’s Euclid Beach and Chicago’s Riverview were closed for good. Some white consumers perceived the newly integrated parks as unsafe and in turn park owners sold the land for considerable profit. Other urban leisure sites – public swimming pools, bowling alleys and roller-skating rinks – also closed down as white consumers fled cities for the suburbs .

This led to what was termed “privatization” of once public resources. It ensured that white people wouldn't have to share public spaces with anyone they found objectionable. Stitt probably doesn’t see the irony.

Despite Stitt's bluster, there is the possibility that the Legislature could override his veto if enough Republicans tap into their inner Mr. Rogers. After all, he's the one of the few documented "good Republicans."

[ Oklahoman / Independent / Chicago Reporter ]

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