On Friday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed that the animated children’s show Paw Patrol has been put down, an unfortunate victim of liberal cancel culture run amok. For some small children, this would indeed be ruff rough news, but luckily for them, it’s a lie.
The Nickelodeon show is about an elite group of search-and-rescue canines, and like the Village People, each pup has a different job. One works in construction zones, one is a firefighter, one specializes in underwater rescues, and yes, a lone German Shepard works as a police K-9. After George Floyd was brutally murdered by cops, some (mostly joking) Twitter users called for Paw Patrol to turn in its badge. This led to a relatively nuanced piece in the New York Times called “The Protests Come For Paw Patrol”, which placed the satirical tweets within the context of a wider conversation about what it means to be a “good cop.” Afterwards, some right-wing gadflies — including Eric Trump — purposefully misinterpreted the headline in order to paint Black Lives Matter protesters as insane. Now, the falsehood has made it all the way to an official White House press briefing.
Earlier today, McEnany said that President Trump was “appalled” by this cancellation that didn’t happen. She explained,
“He’s also appalled by cancel culture and cancel culture specifically as it pertains to cops. We saw a few weeks ago that Paw Patrol, a cartoon about cops, was canceled,” she said. “The show Cops was canceled. Live PD was canceled. LEGO halted the sales of their LEGO city police station. It’s unfortunate.”
McEnany did correctly note that the reality-TV copagandas Cops and Live PD were cancelled after the murder of George Floyd. But she followed up that morsel of truth with another lie; LEGO hasn’t halted sales of police toys, but merely stopped advertising them during the protests.
These mendacious attacks on cancel culture may seem strange, but it’s part of Trump’s reelection strategy to defeat Biden. As Adam Serwer pointed out, Trump doesn’t know how to attack a moderate white guy. The campaign is casting a wider and wider net, trying to link all liberals to an extreme mob mentality, which is one reason that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has appeared in more GOP attack ads than Biden.
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As for so-called “cancel culture,” well, there is some evidence that it’s real. For example, Republican Senator Tom Cotton has introduced a bill that makes it harder to teach kids about America’s racist history. If Trump is actually concerned about attempts to limit discourse, he could start by cleaning up his own party.
No need to worry. PAW Patrol is not canceled. 🐶
— PAW Patrol (@pawpatrol) July 24, 2020
At last someone willing to stand up for ‘Paw Patrol’
Fact check: The children’s show ‘Paw Patrol’ has not been canceled by Nickelodeon pic.twitter.com/Kd9AHSQCFQ
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 24, 2020
Now the left wants to cancel “Paw Patrol.” These people are truly insane…
“The Protests Come for ‘Paw Patrol’” – The New York Times https://t.co/8QbV9coBhN
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) June 11, 2020
