KEITH OLBERMANN: Well, it’s happening again. The Hollywood liberals are trying to indoctrinate your kids. This time, they’re using Japanese animation and Doctor Seuss.
In our number-one story — Hollywood liberals better watch their backs, because Lou Dobbs knows what they’re up to. On his Fox “Out of Business” program last night, Mr. Dobbs took a few minutes to discuss one of the biggest threats facing our children — cartoons.
(Excerpt from video clip) LOU DOBBS: Hollywood is, once again, trying to indoctrinate our children. Two new films out this year — plainly with an agenda, plainly demonizing the so-called one percent and espousing the virtue of green-energy policies, come what may. The president’s liberal friends in Hollywood targeting a younger demographic using animated movies to sell their agenda to children.
OLBERMANN: Look out for that demonizing.
What has Dobbs so upset? I mean, beside the gas. Disney’s “The Secret World of Arrietty,” an animated Japanese film about a family of four people — four-inch tall people, maybe there are four of them, I don’t know — who live beneath the floors and borrow small items from full-size humans in order to survive, and Universal’s new adaptation of the Dr. Seuss classic, “The Lorax,” about a creature who protects nature by speaking on behalf of the trees. Fighting, as Dobbs quoted, “rampant industrialism.”
Where have we all heard this before? “Occupy Wall Street forever trying to pit the makers against the takers. President Obama repeating that everyone should pay their fair share in dozens of speeches — since his State of the Union address last month.”
After showing clips from both of the films, Dobbs then played a series of sound bites from the president, arguing that every American should pay their fair share, suggesting, I suppose, there’s a link between the two.
I’m sure advancing the president’s agenda is exactly what was on Mary Norton’s mind when she wrote “The Borrowers,” the book on which “Arrietty” is based, in 1952. And surely what was on Dr. Seuss’s mind when he first penned “The Lorax” in 1971. But Dobbs’s guest, radio host Mr. Some-Guy-You-Never-Heard-Of, has a plan to fight back against this attempt to create what he refers to as “occu-toddlers.”
(Excerpt from video clip) MATT PATRICK: Here’s what I would recommend, if you want to go see the movie — and we all know what the agenda is — buy, like, huge tubs of popcorn, ram ‘em in your face. They’re all made of paper, then you know — you crinkle it all up. You throw it on the floor. You walk out. Go into the movie theaters and you actually fight back against this message.
OLBERMANN: That ought to teach a lesson to that movie theatre employee who has to clean up your mess. Although, there might be a far simpler explanation for Dobbs’s fury. He was upset that he hadn’t been cast as the Lorax, because I think he’s got the look down.
Joining me now, “Countdown” contributor and comedienne Maysoon Zayid. It’s good to see you.
MAYSOON ZAYID: Good to see you, too.
OLBERMANN: Clearly, conservatives are not fans of “The Lorax.” Do we think that there are any Dr. Seuss books that they do like?
ZAYID: I’ve heard that they find the books so pervasive that they have their own version of Dr. Seuss books, which they prefer. One is called “Oh, the Places You’ll Go After We Disappear You Under NDAA.” There is “Are You My Mother? And If So, Please, Don’t Abort Me.” And then, my favorite one, “One Fish, Two Fish, Trans-Vaginal Wand Fish, Blue Fish.”
But, Romney likes “The Grinch.” Apparently, that’s his favorite book, but he skips over the end because it depresses him and instead, he imagines the Grinch on the Cayman Islands, sipping a virgin piña colada, surrounded by all the Whos’ gifts.
OLBERMANN: And, don’t forget, “Horton Hears a Stock Tip.”
ZAYID: And “Horton Hears an Insider Trading Tip.”
OLBERMANN: That’s right. So, the list this year from conservatives is, “The Lorax,” “The Muppets,” and the Girl Scouts, and we laugh, but during the McCarthy era the baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds, proactively changed their names to Cincinnati Red Legs so that nobody would think they were Communists.
So, where this could go from — I mean, have they left subversives out that we should be worried about — Dickens, Bugs Bunny? Who’s next?
ZAYID: Well, I think Elmer Fudd is safe because that’s Newt Gingrich’s alter ego. It’s like a Clark Kent/Superman thing.
OLBERMANN: Yeah.
ZAYID: Dora the Explorer.
OLBERMANN: Without that Superman — yeah.
ZAYID: Without anything super, more deli than super. But, Dora the Explorer is in big trouble because she was born and raised in America, but Lou Dobbs believes she’s a Mexican alien because she insists on speaking Spanish in public. She’s asking to get deported.
Fat Albert’s safe. They don’t see black people.
OLBERMANN: Did you know, by the way — it’s a good time to mention this — did you know the name of Lou Dobbs’ wife, her maiden name?
ZAYID: Oh, God, no.
OLBERMANN: Because I used to work with her at CNN.
ZAYID: What’s her name?
OLBERMANN: If anybody at home doesn’t understand this, this will explain everything to you. She’s Debi Segura Dobbs.
ZAYID: Oh, my God.
OLBERMANN: Yeah, exactly. It’s a very deep, deep waters we’re entering into here.
Some of the comments are not necessarily questioning climate change but they are more like a real hostile environment about the environment. It’s — it’s one step further, don’t you think, than it usually is? Don’t they usually stop at some point? Now, they’re basically saying “real science” — as Santorum said the other day — allows us to flatten the Earth, and pave everything over and utilize all this stuff we’ve been given.
ZAYID: I said this months ago when Herman Cain was still pretending to be relevant: the 2012 GOP slogan is, “Yes, we hate.” These are people who are taking tips from Franklin Graham, the hateful cracker. They’ve taken hate to a new level.
Who hates Dr. Seuss? “Green Eggs and Ham” — not my favorite book, but the hate towards Dr. Seuss is ridiculous, and I think it’s insane that Lou Dobbs is blaming “The Lorax” and its mission on President Obama. How is President Obama responsible when, at the time that book was written, he was a 10-year-old kid swinging off some monkey bars at a madrasah in Kenya? He had nothing to do with that book.
OLBERMANN: Keep one story together, and just — if it doesn’t fit the timeline — do not come and tell me he wasn’t born in this country, yet he influenced both a book that was written nine years before his birth and this “Lorax” story from 1971.
ZAYID: Exactly.
OLBERMANN: And this reference to “occu-toddlers” — this is the giveaway to it. It’s this desperate attempt to stand at the ocean and not just push the tide back but make sure nobody ever sees the tide again, right? It’s the future they’re worried about.
ZAYID: It also makes it clear that they have no idea what Occupy stands for. First of all, I think, he’s confusing it with “Toddlers and Tiaras,” and they don’t understand — what Occupy is trying to do is actually ensure a future for these kids that you’re trying to disenfranchise, and if they Occupy anything, it should be a corner, because Rick Santorum’s right. Satan is in America, and he’s wearing a sweater vest.
OLBERMANN: “Countdown” contributor Maysoon Zayid, as always, good to see you. Thanks for coming in.
ZAYID: So nice to be back. Thank you.
