"Fox & Friends" hosts shared a deep concern after they reported on a judicial ruling that allows NPR and PBS to run political ads: how will this new ruling effect Sesame Street?
On Thursday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that public broadcasters were now allowed to air political and public-issue ads on both radio and television, stating the ban on the practice unconstitutional. The court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission violated the First Amendment's free speech clause by banning public broadcasters from running such ads.
Host Alisyn Camerota, who was filling in for regular host Gretchen Carlson, said that now NPR and PBS were "really about to become nonpartisan" because of this ruling. "The Ninth Circuit has just struck down a federal ban on political advertising on NPR and PBS. So in other words, all those political ads that you have been inundated with during this primary are about to crop up on Sesame Street," she said.
Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson wondered if stations like NPR and PBS should be imune to political speech. "Now some commentators have said that [NPR and PBS] are pretty good at kind of left-leaning political speech already," he said. "Kinda good!?" host Steve Doocy interjected.
"So perhaps this is an opportunity for moderate and conservative candidates to buy time to get their viewpoint across," Johnson continued. "It's an interesting question though. Should PBS and NPR be immune from those first amendment rights that have to be carried on other stations?"
Camerota jumped in and wondered, "Should Sesame Street be a safe zone, on some level, apart from all of the vitriol of political races?"
Doocy painted a picture of the scenario to further hammer his point home. "So your kid is sitting there, watching Sesame Street. You see the Cookie Monster eat something. Goes to black, comes back up and it’s a Ron Paul attack ad? Is that what we’re going to see going forward?" he wondered.
Johnson joked, "Or maybe Hilary Rosen gets on and says, 'listen, your mother’s taking care of you. She’s not really working.'"
"Anything is possible with this new rule!" Camerota said.
Watch via Mediate in the video above.
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