Don’t Make Us Laugh : Stations try to justify Saturday cartoons as “educational programming”

If you can tear yourself away from this morning’s television cartoons for just a minute, there’s something we’d like to talk to you about.

In 1990, after five years of debate, Congress enacted a law calling on television stations to “serve the educational and informational needs of children.” A noble aim, and fully in keeping with the concerns of Americans over the lagging educational achievements of their children as compared to students in other countries. But how exactly was TV to serve those needs? The legislation, alas, doesn’t say. It only requires stations to describe their educational programming when they apply to have their broadcasting licenses renewed.

And so what we have, according to several groups that have reviewed recent license renewal applications, are definitions of “educational and informational” stretched to limits that insult logic, language and legislative intent.

Such programs as “The Jetsons,” “Yo Yogi,” “Superboy” and “Super Mario Brothers,” to cite a few among many, are described by station owners as having didactic value in keeping with the aim of the law. When a heroic rabbit zaps a nasty toad with a laser, for example, it dramatizes for young minds the triumph of good over evil. Thus it is educational. Sure. We are reminded of the bureaucratic effort a few years ago to reclassify ketchup and pickle relish as vegetables in order to meet the nutritional requirements of federal school lunch programs. As Humpty Dumpty said, “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less.”

Thank you for your attention. And now back to our regular programming.