This folds into the general class of calls-to-inaction which they use to pass off systemic problems. "Why are millenials poor and expecting more? Perhaps they were raised wrong by TV. Let's not examine it further."
I personally didn't see shots at Mr Rogers get much further than this weak Fox segment among conservatives, for what it's worth.
Fox News ran a hit piece on one of the kindest and most beloved educators in America. It's obvious (to some) that they did this to divert from systemic problems. That's what they do, and they're still allowed to call themselves News.
At what point do Americans stand up for a bare minimum level of journalism?
And remember, that while Fox might not have gotten far with this particular piece in your experience, they sent this six minute piece out to millions of people. They wrote it, filmed it, and aired it. They never apologised.
When he actually was broadcasting, he was never considered "one of the most beloved educators." That was recent hagiography, and I watched him as a child growing up in the 70s. He was one of several. Bob Keehan/Captain Kangaroo was another personality for very young kids. I can say as a child at that time we outgrew him fairly quickly and didn't really hang around him much. If anything, most of the content of that time was similar; Gumby, David and Goliath, Bozo the Clown, and more were discarded as soon as better came along. It was that odd time of transition.
He was the definition of pablum; formula you gave to babies. He was outdated compared to Sesame Street and Electric Company, and was almost kitsch just like Bob Ross was. I believe he was lionized more because millenials and zoomers are so overstimulated they crave the opposite now; blandness to the point of sedation.
With the death of the Fairness Doctrine, and its non-applicability to anything other than broadcast media, what mechanisms would you say Americans still have to "stand up" for journalism and to wage war on the evils of Fox News and its brethren?
I personally didn't see shots at Mr Rogers get much further than this weak Fox segment among conservatives, for what it's worth.