The hosts of “Fox & Associates” described kids’s TV host Fred Rogers as an “evil, evil man.”
Fred Rogers, the beloved host of the long-running kids’s tv present “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” died in 2003. In July 2007, the hosts of Fox Information Channel’s “Fox & Associates” morning program — Alisyn Camerota, Steve Doocy, and Brian Kilmeade — aired a section (utilizing titles similar to “Blame Mr. Rogers,” “Was Mr. Rogers Unsuitable?” and “Is Mr. Rogers Ruining Youngsters?”) during which they took Rogers to job as an “evil, evil man” for supposedly encouraging generations of youngsters to develop up with a way of self-entitlement:
The opening commentary from that section ran as follows:
These consultants are saying that the youngsters of immediately who grew up with Mr. Rogers have been instructed by him, “You are particular, only for being who you’re.” Effectively here is the issue [that] will get misplaced in that entire self enterprise, and the concept being arduous and having excessive points for your self, discounted. Mr. Rogers’ message was, “You are particular since you’re you.” He did not say, “If you wish to be particular, you are going to should work arduous,” and now all these youngsters are rising up and so they’re realizing, “Hey wait a minute, Mr. Rogers lied to me, I am not particular — I am attempting arduous, and I am not getting anyplace.”
And this comes out of Louisiana State College, a professor there has examined simply what injury Mr. Rogers could have finished to this entire crop of children who now really feel entitled only for being them. And what he says that as a substitute of telling them, “You are particular, you are nice,” why did not he simply say, “You recognize what, there’s loads of enchancment, preserve engaged on your self.”
That “Fox & Associates” section prompted quite a few rebuttals condemning the “maliciousness of the assault” on Rogers’ legacy, similar to the next instance:
Mr. Rogers had, they claimed, destroyed a whole era together with his liberal notions of entitlement. Because the originator of the snowflake idea, he was an “evil, evil man.” The present’s moderators cited unnamed “consultants” and a professor at Louisiana State College.
These authorities claimed that Rodgers instilled a perception in younger minds that they have been particular for “only for being who you’re” and arduous work was not required.
The viewers of the kids’s TV present all grew to become a era of egocentric and entitled brats. Fred Rogers was, Fox and Associates alleged, an “evil genius” and “the basis of all our issues.”
As per the methodology of the present, the accusation was mentioned with simply sufficient light-hearted banter to cover the maliciousness of the assault.
Actually, the “Fox & Associates” hosts neither cited nor recognized any “consultants” or “research” that corroborated what they have been asserting. The only supply they repeatedly referenced was a Louisiana State College (LSU) professor who neither possessed a tutorial background in psychology or sociology (or any associated subject) nor had undertaken any sort of examine concerning the difficulty — he was a finance professor at LSU whose anecdotal speculations about his college students had lately been quoted in a brief Wall Avenue Journal article about “Why Younger Adults Really feel So Entitled”:
Don Likelihood, a finance professor at Louisiana State College, says it dawned on him final spring. The semester was ending, and as standard, college students have been making a pilgrimage to his workplace, asking for the additional factors wanted to carry their grades to A’s.
“They felt so entitled,” he recollects, “and it simply hit me. We will blame Mr. Rogers.”
Clearly, Mr. Rogers alone cannot be blamed for this. However as Prof. Likelihood sees it, “he is consultant of a tradition of extreme doting.”
Prof. Likelihood teaches many Asian-born college students, and says they settle for no matter grade they’re given; they see B’s and C’s as a sign that they have to work tougher, and that their elders assessed them precisely. They did not develop up with Mr. Rogers or anybody else telling them they have been born particular.
In contrast, American college students typically view decrease grades as a purpose to “hit you up for an A as a result of they got here to class and really feel they labored arduous,” says Prof. Likelihood. He needs extra dad and mom would provide youngsters this attitude: “The world owes you nothing. It’s a must to work and compete. If you wish to be particular, you will should show it.”
And certainly, Likelihood later contacted Fox to make clear the substance of his feedback:
It was … fairly fascinating that Fox Information initially reported my story as being a “professor at Louisiana State College [who] did this examine that confirmed that Mr. Rogers had broken generations of youngsters.” I can actually see that this could have been a headline-grabbing story, however after all, no such examine was ever finished. I despatched an explanatory word that was learn on Fox & Associates. Right here is the textual content:
I made an off-the-cuff commentary that we’ve a society full of people that suppose they’re entitled to issues they have not earned. The reference to Rogers was only a metaphor. Because the article says, he’s consultant of a tradition of extreme doting however he isn’t the issue itself. That mentioned, it was simply an commentary. I’ve no skilled {qualifications} to guage the actual issues or suggest options. Mr. Rogers was an ideal American. I watched him with my kids and would not hesitate to take action once more if I had younger kids. I might simply need to make it possible for they know that folks turn out to be particular by the alternatives they make, not by who they’re and that the world owes you nothing.
Different commenters additionally took exception to the characterization of Rogers’ teachings as expressed by “Fox & Associates”:
Because the early Sixties when his present first went on the air, Rogers’ aim was to supply a present that might promote “shallowness, self-control, creativeness, creativity, curiosity, appreciation of variety, cooperation, persistence and persistence.”
There isn’t any query that this was a person who cared deeply about kids and firmly believed that each youngster was particular.
But, Rogers by no means instructed kids have been infallible or as proficient as everybody else at the whole lot. He merely instructed them they’d worth and that worth was not associated to a toddler’s explicit successes or failures. As one Reddit commenter identified:
He regularly inspired his younger viewers to develop life abilities (tying their shoelaces, studying and writing, planting a backyard, driving a bicycle, caring for animals, studying a sport, et cetera).
He emphasised the significance of going to high school and taking note of their academics, whom he humanized by stating that they have been as soon as kids too.
He explicitly acknowledged that a few of their friends could be higher at sure issues than they have been, explaining that having our personal strengths and pursuits is a part of what makes every of us particular.
Writer Mark J P Wolf equally noticed in his 2017 guide “The World of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” that:
Rogers’ emphasis on private worth shouldn’t be conflated with the failed shallowness motion in Nineties schooling, which included things like the “I Love Me” periods that schoolchildren have been compelled to endure in sure California faculties. Rogers’ method was subtler, extra nuanced, and fewer insistent, and he balanced his message by preserving others in thoughts; the neighborhood was by no means allowed to be eclipsed by the person or any type of egotism. Whereas Neighborhood characters sometimes fell prey to self-centeredness, they’d quickly be corrected by the remainder of the neighborhood, albeit in a relaxed and loving trend.
After all, opinions could differ as to the legacy Rogers’ left to the generations of youngsters who grew up watching him on tv, however as far was we all know, “Fox & Associates” is exclusive (at the very least amongst nationwide TV applications) in terming him “an evil, evil man.”
