After vetoing a bill that would allow OETA to continue operations, Stitt claimed that the state’s public broadcasting system is outdated and overly sexualizes children.
“It may have had its place in 1957. Why are we spending taxpayer dollars to prop up the OETA? It makes no sense to me,” Stitt said at his weekly news briefing. “And then when you further look at the programming, I don’t think Oklahomans want to use their tax dollars to indoctrinate kids. Some of the stuff that they’re showing,
it just overly sexualizes our kids.”
Oklahoma’s Legislature created OETA in 1953, and it launched its first broadcast in 1956. It is the only broadcaster in Oklahoma that covers all 77 counties, with 18 powerful antennas spread across the state, including the Panhandle.
Stitt further complained that the station had shown stories of parents defending their transgender children.
“They’re elevating LGBTQIA2S+ voices,” the governor said. “If you want to watch that, that’s fine. But why are we using taxpayer dollars to prop that up? I don’t think we need that and I’m glad to veto that bill.”
OETA has declined to comment.
OETA’s programming questioned
Asked to clarify which programs indoctrinate children, Stitt’s office provided a list of news programs and documentaries, plus some of the network’s entertaining educational shows that include “Clifford the Big Red Dog.”
One of the examples he cited was a “PBS NewsHour” segment that interviewed parents of transgender children. He also pointed to a documentary broadcast four years ago called “The Gospel of Eureka,” which follows a Passion Play actor and a drag queen as they prepare for their roles in the same rural Arkansas town.
Stitt also doesn’t like that the animated children’s series “Work It Out Wombats!” includes a kangaroo lesbian couple who’ve adopted a child, a situation that’s legal in Oklahoma (if kangaroos could adopt). Three years ago, an episode of “Clifford the Big Red Dog” introduced two characters, “Dr. Mulberry” and “Ms. Mulberry.” Both women were called “Mom” by one of the main characters’ friends.
That episode of “Clifford” was nominated for an Outstanding Children’s Programming award at the 2021 GLAAD Media Awards.
GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said Friday that public broadcasting and freedom of speech are trademarks of the values that every American cherishes.
“Oklahomans should have access to programs that represent and reflect everyone, including LGBTQ people and people of color, who are already vastly underrepresented in all forms of media, especially in children’s programming,” said GLADD CEO and President Sarah Kate Ellis. “Representation and storytelling show every viewer that they matter and belong in our world. Gov. Stitt must know that taxpayer dollars, which come from all taxpayers, should support programming and services for all, and that includes LGBTQ taxpayers and their families.”
Aside from not wanting to see lesbian couples on state-funded TV, Stitt gave another reason why he wants to abolish OETA, which has a higher viewership than any other PBS affiliate in the country.
“The big picture here is, why do we use taxpayer dollars to fund a system that competes with the private sector?” he said. “I don’t see a need for taxpayer dollars to be funding a television station in 2023.”
What’s next for OETA?
The Oklahoma Legislature could override Stitt’s veto, which takes a twothirds majority of both the House and Senate. When lawmakers first voted on the reauthorization bill, it earned well more than that in both chambers. They’ll have until the end of May to decide whether to reverse the governor’s veto.
If OETA isn’t renewed by the July 1 expiration date, state law would allow it to operate for one additional year. Any funds left over would be sent to the state’s general revenue fund, and assets would be transferred to the Oklahoma Management and Enterprise Services agency. Oklahoma’s public radio stations are separate entities and would not be directly affected.
It’s not clear whether Stitt has approached OETA with his concerns about their programming. He’s approved their budget four times since becoming governor. In this year’s budget, he recommended reducing OETA’s $2.9 million state appropriation by $150,000.
OETA’s state appropriation only covers about one-third of its operating costs, said Robert Spinks, a founding member and former chairman of the Friends of OETA nonprofit. State funds don’t even pay for the kind of programming Stitt apparently objects to. Instead, programming is purchased through funds raised by Friends of OETA and by external corporate supporters.
OETA receives about $0.70 per Oklahoma resident in state funding, while other state networks receive as much as $4.26 per resident to support their educational television operations, according to a 2021 annual audit.
Stitt has not publicly offered an alternative to shutting down the state’s public broadcaster. If the Legislature doesn’t override his veto, Oklahoma would lose a lot more than “Sesame Street.”
OETA employs 53 people across the state.
Its network of broadcast stations, in conjunction with the nationwide Public Broadcasting System Warning, Alert, Response Network, has valuable use to emergency management agencies.
If the national Wireless Emergency Alert system breaks down, or if a cybersecurity incident or internet disruption to a carrier facility breaks its primary connection to federal emergency managers, OETA’s network provides an immediate alternate source of inbound emergency messages.
“Yeah, I don’t think that that has anything to do with our public safety,” Stitt said Friday when asked about OETA’s role in helping disseminate emergency notifications to every corner of the state. “I think we’ve got some initiatives right now on communication networks. DPS (the Department of Public Safety) is on that, and I’m not sure how much OETA is helping on DPS’s public safety.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, OETA also helped broadcast educational content to every county.
“Our stations were key providers of educational support, information and material for parents and for teachers who were required to teach through Zoom and other electronic means,” said Spinks. “It’s just one of many examples where OETA puts the interests of the people of Oklahoma first.”
As a PBS affiliate, OETA also broadcasts popular cultural programming like “Antiques Roadshow,” “American Masters” and “Great Performances”; history and natural sciences shows like “NOVA,” “Nature” and the OETA-produced “Back in Time”; plus news programs like the “Oklahoma News Report” and “Frontline.”
Culture war controversy
This isn’t the first time that public broadcasting has been threatened by politicians, some of whom didn’t like what they saw on TV. A year after “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” debuted in the United States, Fred Rogers spoke to Congress about the importance of the government funding non-commercial TV broadcasts for children.
In the 1990s, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich tried and failed to eliminate funding for public broadcasting. Oklahoma’s own U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn tried to block appropriations a few years later, and some state officials failed to eliminate OETA a decade ago.
Greg Treat, who currently serves as the Oklahoma Senate president pro tem, said he once voted against reauthorizing OETA, but was brought into the office of that era’s Senate leader.
“I was told, at that time at least, that the towers were critically important to DPS and others. The license that was held by OETA was an FCC license, it was non-transferable,” Treat said Thursday. “And so they asked me not to be flippant in my vote.”
PBS and NPR went through an attempt to bring in conservative commentators - Tucker Carlson primarily, to bring "balance." I think it was a time when their boards were heavy with corporate conservative types. I remember a period when Carlson was regularly an opposing voice during Cokie Roberts' comments - and I wrote a letter complaining that NPR was elevating a known liar and hate-monger to legitimacy by including him. Both PBS and NPR have been targets of white-nationalist conservatives who want to eliminate them. The latest is Oklahoma governor Kevin Shitt (I mean, Stitt) who is trying to cancel the PBS license. I'll post the article separately, as it has a paywall.
Yeah, "balance" is often how those who are light on facts and heavy on nastiness get airtime and coverage. That article you quoted... Wow, there are so many things I could say against that, I'd practically be writing a book. You get tornadoes, don't you? And the governor wants to shut down the last-ditch emergency warning system because he doesn't like its regular programming? He wants to shut down the educational broadcasting that is orders of magnitude more cost effective than the others because he doesn't like Clifford the Big Red Dog? I wish you were kidding, but Oklahoma was part of my region when I was on the NOW Board. Unfortunately every word of that article and what you said rings true.
The White Nationalist/alt-right/Christian Taliban agenda is being swiftly enacted in southern states, and it's damned scary. These folks are single-mindedly rabid in their hatred of a few key social issues, and their strategy is to eliminate any vestige of them in thought, word or deed. Look what the Florida governor did to Disney World just because the principals spoke out against his "Don't Say Gay" agenda. If they keep getting away with this, we'll have another Nazi-style regime with its gay, immigrant, black/brown, liberal scapegoats.
From The Oklahoman newspaper, April 20, 2023:
Is Clifford the Big Red Dog too “woke”?
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt seems to think so.
After vetoing a bill that would allow OETA to continue operations, Stitt claimed that the state’s public broadcasting system is outdated and overly sexualizes children.
“It may have had its place in 1957. Why are we spending taxpayer dollars to prop up the OETA? It makes no sense to me,” Stitt said at his weekly news briefing. “And then when you further look at the programming, I don’t think Oklahomans want to use their tax dollars to indoctrinate kids. Some of the stuff that they’re showing,
it just overly sexualizes our kids.”
Oklahoma’s Legislature created OETA in 1953, and it launched its first broadcast in 1956. It is the only broadcaster in Oklahoma that covers all 77 counties, with 18 powerful antennas spread across the state, including the Panhandle.
Stitt further complained that the station had shown stories of parents defending their transgender children.
“They’re elevating LGBTQIA2S+ voices,” the governor said. “If you want to watch that, that’s fine. But why are we using taxpayer dollars to prop that up? I don’t think we need that and I’m glad to veto that bill.”
OETA has declined to comment.
OETA’s programming questioned
Asked to clarify which programs indoctrinate children, Stitt’s office provided a list of news programs and documentaries, plus some of the network’s entertaining educational shows that include “Clifford the Big Red Dog.”
One of the examples he cited was a “PBS NewsHour” segment that interviewed parents of transgender children. He also pointed to a documentary broadcast four years ago called “The Gospel of Eureka,” which follows a Passion Play actor and a drag queen as they prepare for their roles in the same rural Arkansas town.
Stitt also doesn’t like that the animated children’s series “Work It Out Wombats!” includes a kangaroo lesbian couple who’ve adopted a child, a situation that’s legal in Oklahoma (if kangaroos could adopt). Three years ago, an episode of “Clifford the Big Red Dog” introduced two characters, “Dr. Mulberry” and “Ms. Mulberry.” Both women were called “Mom” by one of the main characters’ friends.
That episode of “Clifford” was nominated for an Outstanding Children’s Programming award at the 2021 GLAAD Media Awards.
GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said Friday that public broadcasting and freedom of speech are trademarks of the values that every American cherishes.
“Oklahomans should have access to programs that represent and reflect everyone, including LGBTQ people and people of color, who are already vastly underrepresented in all forms of media, especially in children’s programming,” said GLADD CEO and President Sarah Kate Ellis. “Representation and storytelling show every viewer that they matter and belong in our world. Gov. Stitt must know that taxpayer dollars, which come from all taxpayers, should support programming and services for all, and that includes LGBTQ taxpayers and their families.”
Aside from not wanting to see lesbian couples on state-funded TV, Stitt gave another reason why he wants to abolish OETA, which has a higher viewership than any other PBS affiliate in the country.
“The big picture here is, why do we use taxpayer dollars to fund a system that competes with the private sector?” he said. “I don’t see a need for taxpayer dollars to be funding a television station in 2023.”
What’s next for OETA?
The Oklahoma Legislature could override Stitt’s veto, which takes a twothirds majority of both the House and Senate. When lawmakers first voted on the reauthorization bill, it earned well more than that in both chambers. They’ll have until the end of May to decide whether to reverse the governor’s veto.
If OETA isn’t renewed by the July 1 expiration date, state law would allow it to operate for one additional year. Any funds left over would be sent to the state’s general revenue fund, and assets would be transferred to the Oklahoma Management and Enterprise Services agency. Oklahoma’s public radio stations are separate entities and would not be directly affected.
It’s not clear whether Stitt has approached OETA with his concerns about their programming. He’s approved their budget four times since becoming governor. In this year’s budget, he recommended reducing OETA’s $2.9 million state appropriation by $150,000.
OETA’s state appropriation only covers about one-third of its operating costs, said Robert Spinks, a founding member and former chairman of the Friends of OETA nonprofit. State funds don’t even pay for the kind of programming Stitt apparently objects to. Instead, programming is purchased through funds raised by Friends of OETA and by external corporate supporters.
OETA receives about $0.70 per Oklahoma resident in state funding, while other state networks receive as much as $4.26 per resident to support their educational television operations, according to a 2021 annual audit.
Stitt has not publicly offered an alternative to shutting down the state’s public broadcaster. If the Legislature doesn’t override his veto, Oklahoma would lose a lot more than “Sesame Street.”
OETA employs 53 people across the state.
Its network of broadcast stations, in conjunction with the nationwide Public Broadcasting System Warning, Alert, Response Network, has valuable use to emergency management agencies.
If the national Wireless Emergency Alert system breaks down, or if a cybersecurity incident or internet disruption to a carrier facility breaks its primary connection to federal emergency managers, OETA’s network provides an immediate alternate source of inbound emergency messages.
“Yeah, I don’t think that that has anything to do with our public safety,” Stitt said Friday when asked about OETA’s role in helping disseminate emergency notifications to every corner of the state. “I think we’ve got some initiatives right now on communication networks. DPS (the Department of Public Safety) is on that, and I’m not sure how much OETA is helping on DPS’s public safety.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, OETA also helped broadcast educational content to every county.
“Our stations were key providers of educational support, information and material for parents and for teachers who were required to teach through Zoom and other electronic means,” said Spinks. “It’s just one of many examples where OETA puts the interests of the people of Oklahoma first.”
As a PBS affiliate, OETA also broadcasts popular cultural programming like “Antiques Roadshow,” “American Masters” and “Great Performances”; history and natural sciences shows like “NOVA,” “Nature” and the OETA-produced “Back in Time”; plus news programs like the “Oklahoma News Report” and “Frontline.”
Culture war controversy
This isn’t the first time that public broadcasting has been threatened by politicians, some of whom didn’t like what they saw on TV. A year after “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” debuted in the United States, Fred Rogers spoke to Congress about the importance of the government funding non-commercial TV broadcasts for children.
In the 1990s, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich tried and failed to eliminate funding for public broadcasting. Oklahoma’s own U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn tried to block appropriations a few years later, and some state officials failed to eliminate OETA a decade ago.
Greg Treat, who currently serves as the Oklahoma Senate president pro tem, said he once voted against reauthorizing OETA, but was brought into the office of that era’s Senate leader.
“I was told, at that time at least, that the towers were critically important to DPS and others. The license that was held by OETA was an FCC license, it was non-transferable,” Treat said Thursday. “And so they asked me not to be flippant in my vote.”
PBS and NPR went through an attempt to bring in conservative commentators - Tucker Carlson primarily, to bring "balance." I think it was a time when their boards were heavy with corporate conservative types. I remember a period when Carlson was regularly an opposing voice during Cokie Roberts' comments - and I wrote a letter complaining that NPR was elevating a known liar and hate-monger to legitimacy by including him. Both PBS and NPR have been targets of white-nationalist conservatives who want to eliminate them. The latest is Oklahoma governor Kevin Shitt (I mean, Stitt) who is trying to cancel the PBS license. I'll post the article separately, as it has a paywall.
Yeah, "balance" is often how those who are light on facts and heavy on nastiness get airtime and coverage. That article you quoted... Wow, there are so many things I could say against that, I'd practically be writing a book. You get tornadoes, don't you? And the governor wants to shut down the last-ditch emergency warning system because he doesn't like its regular programming? He wants to shut down the educational broadcasting that is orders of magnitude more cost effective than the others because he doesn't like Clifford the Big Red Dog? I wish you were kidding, but Oklahoma was part of my region when I was on the NOW Board. Unfortunately every word of that article and what you said rings true.
The White Nationalist/alt-right/Christian Taliban agenda is being swiftly enacted in southern states, and it's damned scary. These folks are single-mindedly rabid in their hatred of a few key social issues, and their strategy is to eliminate any vestige of them in thought, word or deed. Look what the Florida governor did to Disney World just because the principals spoke out against his "Don't Say Gay" agenda. If they keep getting away with this, we'll have another Nazi-style regime with its gay, immigrant, black/brown, liberal scapegoats.
And that is part of why I'm not moving back to the USA.
King George III?
Charles. <smacks forehead> Sorry.