Even kids' shows are becoming political fodder for debates these days.
Following in Donald Trump’s footsteps of criticizing “cancel culture,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany used Friday’s briefing to complain about the children’s show PAW Patrol being “canceled.” The problem is, PAW Patrol is far from canceled. In fact, the show actually tweeted to fact-check McEnany.
The random comments came as McEnany complained about increasing scrutiny against police, as Black Lives Matter protests continue across the country following several highly publicized murders of unarmed Black people by police. While police violence and brutality are far from irregular, it is in fact quite regular, renewed attention on the issue following the death of George Floyd had the largest impact since the BLM movement first kicked off in 2014.
As a result, shows like Cops and Live PD were dropped from their networks. Actions like these seem to have incensed the Trump Administration, causing McEnany to go on a tirade about “cancel culture,” stating Trump is “appalled by cancel culture, and cancel culture specifically as it pertains to cops. We saw a few weeks ago that PAW Patrol, a cartoon show about cops, was canceled. The show Cops was canceled. Live PD was canceled. Lego halted the sales of their Lego City police station.”
Again, unlike Cops and Live PD, PAW Patrol was not canceled. According to Deadline, Nickelodeon renewed the show earlier this year, in fact. The show’s twitter account did, however, release a message last month in response to the ongoing protests.
McEnany also falsely stated that Lego halted the sale of their police inspired sets. In the wake of the protest, Legos decided to halt marketing on the toys, but the police station Lego set is still being sold. The company also corrected McEnany.
One might argue that McEnany's dialogue seems like a distraction from much larger issues plaguing the country. In addition to the plague-like COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. is also suffering from unhinged federal law enforcementgassing local officials and peaceful protesters as well as an impending economic cliff coming as a result of mass unemployment.
But sure, let’s (falsely) complain about Paw Patrol.
