“Is Sesame Street really brought to you by the letters U, S and A?

The US Army – which partly sponsors the show’s makers, the New York-based Children’s Television Workshop – certainly loves Sesame Street. Especially its saccharine theme music about everything being ‘A-OK’.

Iraqi prisoners were treated to repeated playings of the ditty at ear-splitting volume by US psychological operations officers intent on encouraging their captives to submit to questioning.

This revelation seems to run contrary to everything the TV show for pre-school children has stood for since its first broadcast in 1969. Also, by bringing Big Bird, Elmo and Mr Snuffleupagus into such disrepute, the US soldiers may have tarnished a more subtle plan hatched by their masters back in Washington.” According to the article, elements in the Bush administration think Sesame Street is the ideal vehicle to export American values and teach the third world not to hate us. The Children’s Television Workshop objects to the characterization of its flagship show.