Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, just took a hammer to woke attempts at indoctrination in his state by pulling the license of the state’s sole PBS station, stopping it from airing woke propaganda that he characterized as meant to indoctrinate young children.
Speaking to Fox News Digital about the momentous step forward in the culture war, Gov. Stitt said, “OETA, to us, is an outdated system. You know, the big, big question is why are we spending taxpayer dollars to prop up or compete with the private sector and run television stations? And then when you go through all of the programing that’s happening and the indoctrination and over-sexualization of our children, it’s just really problematic, and it doesn’t line up with Oklahoma values.”
The Daily Wire, reporting on the material PBS was airing that Gov. Stitt found objectionable, reported:
Stitt’s office pointed to a segment of “Let’s Learn,” which featured a drag queen known as Lil Miss Hot Mess reading a purported children’s book called “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish.”
Another show aired by the station, “Clifford The Big Red Dog,” features lesbian parents, a show called “Work It Out Wombat” features a gay character, and “Odd Squad” depicted a same-sex wedding. Stitt also noted OETA recently aired a segment on its “Newshour” program that voiced support for chemical treatments including puberty blockers for children who identify as transgender.
OETA’s “Pride Month” programming included a special about a town in which Christians “step into the spotlight to dismantle stereotypes” about drag queens.
Referring to that woke programming, Gov. Stitt said, “When you think about educating kids, let’s teach them to read and their numbers and counting and letters and those kind of things. I mean, some of the programing that we’re seeing… it just doesn’t need to be on public television.”
Continuing, he added, “Oklahoma taxpayers are going, ‘Hey, hang on, time out for just a second. That’s not my values.’ I’m just tired of using taxpayer dollars for some person’s agenda. I represent the taxpayers.”
He also noted that the idea of public broadcasting is, at this point, out of date, saying, “There’s so much television, there’s so much media. Maybe in 1957 you could have made an argument that you needed a public television station. That’s totally outdated at this point.”
He also noted that the important broadcasting functions of the state, such as Amber Alerts, will remain functional. The woke programming will just go away. As he put it when speaking to Fox News Digital:
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“All those towers and our communications, that’s all owned by the state and whether we continue to fund an outdated public television station with taxpayer dollars, or we let the free market work, we’re still going to have the same capabilities, the same assets, the same towers.”
“Our DPS system is what rolls out the Amber Alerts, for example. None of that’s going away. So that’s just people confusing the issue, not being clear with their mission, trying to make excuses of why the tax dollars should still fund this outdated system.”