Children's TV has questionable political themes, study shows

University of Alberta ^ | 8-Dec-2009 | Bev Betkowski

[Pharmboy]

Yep...the media is waaaay too right wing!! I didn't realize they smoked that much funny stuff in Alberta...I thought Vancouver was the center of that activity.

[ClearCase_guy]

a conservative political ideology that punishes individual initiative

Step away from the bong.

[Izzy Dunne]

a conservative political ideology that punishes individual initiative

Huh?

[Izzy Dunne]

a number of positive political values such as tolerance, listening, communicating with others and contributing to the community, it also represents a conservative political ideology

Hmmm. there are two sets of values: the "positive" ones and the "conservative" ones.

[ElayneJ]

“a conservative political ideology that punishes individual initiative, opposes critique and change, and relegates females to supportive roles,”

Either the writer is not at all familiar with conservative ideology or he or she is outright misrepresenting.
I would love to see a leftist confronted on the attitude toward Sara Palin. Seems that they hate her because she is a powerful woman who supports the conservative ideology - that opposes women in positions of power.... Are they even capable of being logical?

[Sherman Logan]

But I thought it was just entertainment and watching TV characters indulge in casual sex thousands of times has absolutely no impact on a child’s moral development.

[Izzy Dunne]

an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences

Odds on being a liberal?

99:1

[originalbuckeye]

LIARS! I noticed that children's TV had a Left wing slant in the 90’s. I suspect it has had a Left wing slant forever but I didn't realize it. In his high school history class, my son was shown a Cronkite documentary from the early 80's. He recognized the bias. Big Media has been manipulating us for decades. Including children's TV......including Sesame Street.

[Skooz]

Sorry.

Thomas rules.

[pnh102]

This “research” is so silly and useless that it must have been funded through taxpayer money.

[MrB]

a conservative political ideology that punishes individual initiative

dat don't make no sense... :)

Seriously, though, I've talked to libs that INSIST that progressive taxation is not punishing achievement.
"It's NOT punishment! It's NOT!"

[tlb]

Thomas and Friends also has a problem with violence amongst the various trains. Roundhouse blows are brutal.

Sir Toppem Hat is an exploitative capitalist swine as well, with a one track mind.

[MrB]

Female characters in a supporting role. How awful. Who thought of that idea? Some patriarchal oppressive male, I'm sure...

Gen 2:18
18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

[n230099]

"Research by the University of Alberta's Augustana Campus contends that children's programming can carry underlying political themes that may surprise parents.

While this is already known to anyone that saw "Sesame Street" for...oh, say the past 30 years, this lady's analysis (can you believe she probably got paid to do this?) is, as others have noted,specious or either terrible naive, or misinformed.

Agree, that "it also represents a conservative political ideology that punishes individual initiative..." represents a fundamental lack of understanding or simple ignorance.

[B-Chan]

Sir Toppham Hatt doesn’t take crap from the trains. As a result, they respect him.

In my opinion, that’s a good lesson for kids to learn.

[wbill]

This researcher is out of her mind. As the parent of two small kids, I get to keep an eye on what they're watching. The liberal slant is bad enough at times, that I just turn the TV off.

It's not the warm fuzzy, "Lets all hold hands and bring the world together" type slant. That's annoying, but acceptable.

No, what gets to me is the "People that don't recycle are evil" or "People that aren't 'green' are evil" or "people who want to keep their money and not give it all to the homeless are evil" or "People that don't toe the current liberal party line are evil". That's when the TV goes off.

I should admit, though, that I do feel a little sorry for the researcher in this article. Watching Thomas the Tank Engine is about like watching paint dry.

[wbill]

99:1 ? That low?

[TalonDJ]

Studies like this always overlook that most of the characters are rather ‘gender neutral’.

[MrB]

We dropped all tv about a year ago, haven’t missed it.
We watch some DVDs. Little ones love watching the same thing over and over again.

[Buckeye McFrog]

so I suppose there is a final episode where Thomas is decomissioned and sent to the scrap heap because his carbon footprint is just too large??