Friend,

Just when I thought my Republican colleagues in Congress couldn’t get any crazier, they set their sights on Sesame Street. Literally.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene held a hearing last month where she and other Republicans lambasted the heads of PBS and NPR. They claimed that these news outlets promoted “woke ideology” for younger audiences. These public institutions (which, for the record, receive only a small percentage of their funding from the federal government) are a part of America’s core social fabric. They serve millions of rural households who might otherwise lack access to local news, cultural content, political debates, and high school sports coverage. And besides, when did Cookie Monster become partisan?

It’s no accident that Trump’s biggest allies in Congress are attacking local news and educational material. They want to build up their echo chambers, promote Fox News, and undermine civic engagement. I’d rather Congress use its oversight power to question Elon, not Elmo.

– Jim