Kermit the Frog’s anthem, “It’s not easy being Green,” was popular enough even a Republican like Frank Sinatra covered it, together with a pair of John Denver songs, on one of his twilight career albums. It would take another 40 years before anti-woke, MAGA Republicans would discern in its lyrics an insidious, initial brainwashing of America’s children introducing a half century of Marxist ideology on PBS. If this accusation sounds crazy to you, I’m only recounting charges leveled from a White House intent on defunding PBS and NPR.

President Donald Trump’s executive order also claimed its news coverage is “biased and partisan.” Kermit’s lament is perceived as a precursor for both DEI initiatives and Black Lives Matter marches. We are asked to believe much of Sesame Street’s programming advances liberal, leftist themes. Mister Rogers is viewed as little better among Q-adjacent zealots.

I first encountered the Muppets during my father’s second tour of duty in Washington, D.C. where a local roaster, Wilkins coffee, hired a University of Maryland student to produce TV commercials in the late 1950s. Jim Henson had already been producing a few minutes of Muppetry for a weekly children’s show on WTOP, Channel 9, “Sam and Friends.” His skits attracted a loyal following. The Muppet ads for Wilkins were knee-slappingly hilarious. Henson spent nearly a decade in the commercial sector — offering his Wilkins catalog to several dozen regional roasters across the country. It was the Children’s Television Workshop at PBS station WETA that approached Henson to create an educational children’s show featuring his Muppets. Sesame Street launched in 1969.

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My two kids were born in 1970 and 1971. They were transfixed with Henson’s shenanigans for four to five years until they started school. They arrived there already knowing their alphabet, numbers and colors. They didn’t have an inkling Bert and Ernie might be gay (another recent rumor), and neither, I suspect, did Henson. Although nine years younger, I’m a fellow Terp graduate and met him several times on the campus in College Park. He didn’t strike me as a political animal of any sort. Another longstanding PBS contributor is Ken Burns, director of more than 40 documentaries, two of which were nominated for Oscars. Just as Henson figured out how to adapt puppetry for television, Burns devised the use of still photographs as a fluid pageantry to tell American stories occurring before film was available. Though a self-professed, “yellow dog Democrat,” in his personal life, it’s difficult to find bias in his recounting of the Civil War, Vietnam or World War II. Burns readily acknowledges the role PBS has played in his success, calling it a “national treasure.

Perhaps it was the long-running popularity of the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour and its continuing success today that most annoys conservatives. The News Hour attempts to present a nonpartisan rendition of the country’s daily turmoil, certainly far more so than their “fair and balanced” rivals at Fox. It was Stephen Colbert who first observed, “…reality has a well-known liberal bias,” in his Daily Show role as a right-wing nutball. Though PBS has brought us spectacular shows, like “Downton Abbey” on Masterpiece Theater, there is an irony in the fact most are BBC productions which enjoyed financial subsidies from British taxpayers. Without PBS, it’s unlikely we ever would ever have seen Sesame Street, or Ken Burns’ historical American filmography, nor Jim Lehrer and, more recently, Gwen Ifill moderating presidential debates.

Personally, I’ve been a sporadic financial supporter of our local PBS stations. I’m ready to break out my checkbook during the next four years to help keep these outlets on the air until sanity returns to Washington. Both stations offer local programming that provides an in-depth view of local government, state issues and interesting projects across Colorado. These are stories commercial channels are ill-equipped to tackle. We may have to tolerate additional commercials which PBS is legally required to shun today. Without federal support, this prohibition makes no sense. The same goes for CPR, which I have shorted in this essay. I remain current with our local music scene by leaving my car radio tuned to 102.3. I would like to think Congress might stand up for their constituents and defend public broadcasting, but, if they won’t defend the Voice of America, I have my doubts they will find the spinal starch required to support PBS and NPR.

During the ravages of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, both local television and cell service were knocked out and it was Blue Ridge Public Radio that kept the stranded informed of where they could turn for help. Just as the migration of ad revenue to the internet has decimated rural newspapers, local commercial radio stations have closed as well. It is only public radio that provides local news across vast stretches of red America. Trump’s appointee as president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Ruby Calvert of Wyoming, said recently, “I know firsthand the valuable services that public media provides to all Americans in urban and rural communities, and my role on the CPB Board is shaped by my Western values, (and) my Republican values. Association CEO Kate Riley added, “This order defies the will of the American people and would devastate the public safety, educational and local service missions of public media — services that the American public values, trusts and relies on every day.”

In closing, the news has carried reports and aired footage of the president being asked whether he feels he has a responsibility to uphold the U.S. Constitution. He repeatedly responded, “I don’t know.” Apparently, he has forgotten the oath he has sworn twice, “…and (I) will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” When I received my commission as an officer in the Navy, my oath was, “…I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” Donald “I’m not a lawyer” Trump may have to consult with his “very brilliant attorneys” before deciding whether to uphold our Constitution, but I still feel bound by the remainder of my pledge that, “I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.” So should President Trump.

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former Colorado legislator.