According to Fox News, Mr. Roger is evil, because he taught kids, that kids are special, for beimg who they are, instead of working hard to better themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcJBZOY4k30

The people at Fox News are morons >:(

Mr. Rogers was a wonderful man :)

I know, if anyone is evil, it's Faux News.

Blame it on Mr Rogers, Blame it on the Stones, Blame it on 50 cent, blameblameblameblame

OMG that report, and the idiot anchor who backs it are right!

Here I am giving kids support and telling them that they are special when they haven't even earned it. It stops today. Does anyone think that 7 years old is too young for a child to rotate my tires and change my oil?

What. EVAH.

I love Mr. Rogers...RIP.

Watch it again...it's not Fox News that is saying he's evil, they're only commenting on a report by some Louisiana State University professor.  They're being sacastic throughout most of the report.

Aren't these the same guys who said that Tinky Winky is gay? I can't believe that they would waste air time on such b.s.

Now, if they were saying that Barney is evil, that would be another story.  :D ;D ;D ;D



Cat

http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/12/hal.gif

Uhhhhh....let me straighten out a few things.

1. As Limblifter said, Mister Rogers Neighborhood was a program for early childhood.  People who work for FOX News don't have the frame of reference because they never grew up.  By the time we were in 3rd grade, we wanted edgier entertainment.  We were not watching Mister Rogers when hard work, competition, and academic achievment become vital skills for kids.

2. Fred Rogers never said life was easy and nothing will be expected of you.  Quite the contrary.  Fred Rogers addressed manners, etiquette, and ethical behavior.  Fred Rogers also addressed familial issues many children had to cope with, such as divorce and financial hardship. He did it in a way five-year-olds could understand, which is too advanced for FOX News commentators.

3. Per item #1, Fred Rogers was never supposed to the only figure in your child's early educational diet.  Schools and parents were obliged to show the child how to meet rigorous expectations and indeed to surpass them.  If they failed, it is not Fred Rogers' fault. 

4. "You are special for who you are" does not contradict "You must work hard to succeed in life."  How about the antithesis of  Mister Rogers: Catholic school, pre-Vatican II.  The message--especially pre-Vatican II--was "You are a filthy, wretched sinner who deserves to go to hell, you must prove you are worthy of God's forgiveness."  The shame and the academic rigor encouraged some measure of academic excellence, but it also led to emotional emptiness, self-hatred, insecurity, mean-spiritedness, sexual confusion, rage, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, and suicide ideation.  Reassuring a child that he or she is intrinsically good does not imply that everything the child does is good; it means that when you inevitably fail it does not mean you are a failure as a person, and because you are a worthy person, you can keep trying until you succeed.  Now, I don't know who the genius was who first decided every child wins just for entering the competition and every child deserves to take a trophy home.  I don't know who decided you should get 200 points for signing your name on the SAT exam.  I do know that Fred Rogers had nothing to with it.

5. Narcissism and entitlement.  I agree that the Baby Boomers and subsequent generations (including me as an individual) are vain and believe they deserve the good life without having to work for it.  Not all of us, but a great many, including a great many conservatives. Where does this B.S. come from?  Well, I think the advertising industry is the best place to start your research.  FOX News does not like Mister Rogers, but they certainly love advertising AND the mentality that advertising fosters.  I agree with conservative criticism of the entertainment industry.  The majority of it is toxic.  However, FOX News is in the entertainment biz and is more toxic than pro-wrestling, gangsta rap, Playboy, or Cosmopolitan magazine could ever be.  As long as conservatives call FOX News their home, they have no business putting down programming on PBS.  Mister Rogers did not teach "I wanna rock 'n' roll all night and party every day" nor did he espouse Social Darwinism for kids, which is what FOX News children's programming would do! 

6.  FOX News perpetually trashes the academia as a purveyor of left-wing propaganda and sexual perversion.  They pound on universities for being out of touch with the real world.  Yet when some crank from LSU blames Mister Rogers for our nation's social problems, they don't question that scholar's credibility.

7. FOX News routinely defends the Christian Right whose message is truly narcissistic and entitled.  All you have to do is accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior and you're home free.  Now you are "special" because you are one of God's chosen people.  The difference between Mister Rogers and the Christian Right is the former said "I'm OK, you're OK," and the latter says "I'm OK, you're not OK." 

8.  What many of you are dismissing on FOX as idiotic and crass is actually something very dangerous that we must not dismiss.  Disguised in jocular banter is a message that is divisive, anti-intellectual, anti-humanitarian, authoritarian, corporatist, and militaristic.  During that YouTube clip I kept thinking of Nazi propaganda and the Hitler Youth.  I am not being facetious.  I do not subscribe to hippie anarchist do-your-own-thingism; however, FOX News is promoting the other extreme, which would dress five-year-olds in military uniforms, make them goose-step to the National Anthem, and solute the statue of Ronald Reagan before mandatory school prayer to Mammon.  Successful propaganda works on a slow-boil principle.  You can agree, you can disagree, you can promote it, you can protest it, but the key to its success is persistence of message and saturation of the culture.

http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/14/nono.gif

They hate Fred Rogers because he's their worst enemy... A Presbyterian minister, a Christian man who DIDN'T preach intolerance and promote neo-conservative 'values', but instead taught about community and neighbourly values, self-esteem etc... I do believe that too many people suffer from a sense of entitlement in some respects, but to blame Mr. Rogers is the most simplistic and despicable of things to do. He was just a nice old man who loved children and knew how to create quality, uplifting, entertaining, and educational programming for them. Unlike Fox, which is completely devoid of any message which could be called uplifting, entertaining, educational or quality.

They hate Fred Rogers because he's their worst enemy... A Presbyterian minister, a Christian man who DIDN'T preach intolerance and promote neo-conservative 'values', but instead taught about community and neighbourly values, self-esteem etc... I do believe that too many people suffer from a sense of entitlement in some respects, but to blame Mr. Rogers is the most simplistic and despicable of things to do. He was just a nice old man who loved children and knew how to create quality, uplifting, entertaining, and educational programming for them. Unlike Fox, which is completely devoid of any message which could be called uplifting, entertaining, educational or quality.

Karma +1

Fred Rogers in real life was much the same as he was on television.  At least no evidence has emerged that he was a hard drinking, foul-mouthed, gambling, womanizer. I can only imagine Geraldo-types would love to expose Mister Rogers as a phony, but no evidence in 40 years has emerged, not even any credible testimonials.

I wish I had been on that FOX show.  I woulda said.

"Jack, I once MET Mister Rogers.  You, sir, are no Mister Rogers."  8)

I wish I had been on that FOX show.  I woulda said.

"Jack, I once MET Mister Rogers.  You, sir, are no Mister Rogers."  8)


http://www.thesmilies.com/smilies/happy0030.gif



Cat

Mr. Rogers was an amazing and wonderful man.