“War on Penguins” rages on in Medved's USA Today op-ed

In a November 29 USA Today op-ed, conservative radio host Michael Medved continued his attacks on the animated children's movie Happy Feet (Warner Bros., November 2006), claiming that the movie, which features tap-dancing penguins, contains “unmistakably alarming, discomfiting and politically potent elements,” and that penguins themselves have “become targets and instruments of powerful propaganda.” As Media Matters for America noted, in a November 17 weblog post on Townhall.com, Medved referred to the film as “Crappy Feet” and claimed that it was the “darkest, most disturbing feature length animated film ever offered by a major studio.”

Medved is just one of several media conservatives to attack Happy Feet for its alleged pro-environmentalist content, claiming that the movie is intended to indoctrinate children. In his USA Today op-ed, Medved also attacked as propaganda the children's book And Tango Makes Three (Simon & Schuster, June 2005), which is based on the true story of two male penguins at New York City's Central Park Zoo that hatched and raised a penguin chick named “Tango.”