This news article has been brought to you by the letter C, for controversy: 'Sesame Street' may be celebrating its 40th anniversary next week, but some have threatened to rain on the PBS mainstay's parade by accusing the seminal children's program of taking a not-so-thinly veiled dig at Fox News network.

The flap revolved around a recently re-aired sketch in which trash-can dweller Oscar the Grouch is told by a fellow grouch that she's switching over from Oscar's "all grouchy, all disgusting', all yucky" Grouch News Network to "Pox News -- now there's a trashy news show!"

UPDATE: 'Sesame Street' responds to the controversy...This news article has been brought to you by the letter C, for controversy: 'Sesame Street' may be celebrating its 40th anniversary next week, but some have threatened to rain on the PBS mainstay's parade by accusing the seminal children's program of taking a not-so-thinly veiled dig at Fox News network.

The flap revolved around a recently re-aired sketch in which trash-can dweller Oscar the Grouch is told by a fellow grouch that she's switching over from Oscar's "all grouchy, all disgusting', all yucky" Grouch News Network to "Pox News -- now there's a trashy news show!"


The episode was first aired two years ago without much incident. But an Oct. 29 rerun of the sketch provoked protests from online outlet Big Hollywood ("So what gives? PBS -- a network partially funded with my tax dollars -- has the right to tell my kids that their parents watch 'trashy' news?") and has rippled through the message boards and Internet ever since.

A PBS ombudsman recently weighed in on this flap, writing that this take on Fox News "should have been resisted. Broadcasters can tell parents whatever they think of Fox or any other network, but you shouldn't do it through the kids."

Ellen Lewis, Sesame Workshop's VP of corporate communications, told Yahoo! News, "'Sesame Street' is well-known for their parodies, and the show did a parody involving the Grouch News Network and in it one of the characters, Grudgetta, Oscar the Grouch's friend, mentioned Pox News Network."

Indeed, Sesame Street has done many parodies throughout its four decades on air, touching on everything from 'Monsterpiece Theater' to '30 Rock' to a recent 'Mad Men' spoof.

Added Lewis: "This is just another one of the many parodies that 'Sesame Street' has done over the years."

UPDATE: Sesame Workshop executive vice president Miranda Barry addressed the controversy directly in a statement:

On behalf of Sesame Workshop and the producers of 'Sesame Street,' I wanted to clear up misunderstandings about our Grouch News Network segment that re-ran on October 29. I realize this may have drawn more attention because of the recent dust-up between Fox News and the White House, but I assure you that no political comment or comment about Fox News, subtle or overt, was intended! First, this show was first aired in Season 38, which premiered in August 2007. That means it was written in the fall of 2006 -- long before the Fox-Obama controversy, in fact before Obama was elected. The whole segment was a parody of CNN (called GNN) or the "Grouch News Network." Children who watch 'Sesame Street' (and adults who remember what it felt like to be a kid watching 'Sesame Street') know that Oscar the Grouch is a contrarian. He lives in a trash can and loves everything "yucky," and "disgustin'." For a Grouch, "Trashy" is high praise! Not only would child-viewers be unlikely to connect "Pox News" to Fox News, in the context of this scene, they would understand the characters to be saying that "Pox News" is better than "GNN."

The writers expected that adult viewers would make the connection to Fox News as well as the connection to CNN. This was equal-opportunity parody -- Oscar always tries to offend everybody! ...

The reason that we have the grumpy, grouchy contrarian Oscar on the show is because his curriculum purpose is to teach differing perspectives -- an important life skill where children learn that it takes all kinds of people to make a world. Watching Oscar shows kids that you can listen to someone with a very different world view, and even be friends with them, without losing your own perspective.