The PBS board of directors voted unanimously Thursday to terminate Rachel Griffin Accurso, known to millions of preschoolers as “Ms. Rachel,” following a coordinated campaign by conservative media figures who objected to her statement that “all children deserve safety, food, and clean water” in reference to civilian casualties in Gaza. The firing, which affects the network’s highest-rated children’s property, came after advertisers including a pillow company and a cryptocurrency exchange threatened to withdraw sponsorship unless PBS demonstrated “ideological neutrality regarding which children matter.”
The controversy began when Accurso posted a thirty-second video to her personal social media accounts expressing concern for “children everywhere, including those in Gaza,” prompting accusations from far-right commentators that she was “indoctrinating toddlers with anti-colonial sentiment” and “promoting empathy without proper vetting.” PBS initially defended the host, noting that her mandate was “singing songs about feelings,” but reversed course after a forty-eight-hour pressure campaign organized under the hashtag #NotMyMsRachel.
“This is about standards,” said Joan Berro, a former children’s birthday party clown who watched three minutes of Ms. Rachel in 2022 and now consults on “developmentally appropriate nationalism.” “Children’s programming should be neutral. No politics. No feelings about war. Just colors. Shapes. The alphabet. Maybe flags. But only certain flags. I’ve entertained at hundreds of parties. The kids who cry about other kids? They’re the problem. They ruin the cake.”
The “ALL children” rhetoric, according to Reno Borja, a dental hygienist who treated a patient whose cousin works in public broadcasting, was particularly egregious. “All children?” Reno asked, adjusting his mask. “That’s vague. Suspicious. Inclusive to a fault. I’ve seen dental X-rays. They don’t lie. Some teeth have cavities. Some don’t. You prioritize. The healthy ones. Same with children. Obviously.”
Joe Barron, who once successfully babysat his nephew in 2018 and now consults on “pedagogical purity,” analyzed the firing’s necessity. “She said the quiet part loud,” Barron declared from his booth at a Chuck E. Cheese. “All children. Universal. Like my unlimited salad bar. But some salad bars have limits. For reasons. I’ve seen children cry. At birthdays. When they don’t get cake. That’s appropriate. Crying about other children? That’s grooming. For empathy.”
Barron has offered to host a replacement program provisionally titled “Mr. Joe’s Patriotic Playroom,” provided PBS allows him to wear his custom “Selective Empathy” cardigan and bring his emotional support ferret, which he claims can detect “inclusive language from the ball pit.”
Accurso released a statement standing by her comments, which Barron dismissed as “exactly what someone with a history of caring about the wrong children would say,” noting that the statement was released at 4:44 PM, which “adds up to 12, the number of months in a year, divided by one for ideological purity.”
Ms. Rachel is Ms. Rachel for ALL children.
