Fox News v. Sesame Street: Beck, O'Reilly fans angry over Oscar's parody

On the eve of its 40th anniversary, Sesame Street is courting a strange political controversy. A two-year-old episode featuring Oscar the Grouch as a (what else?) grouchy TV news reporter for (who else?) the Grouch News Network has caused a minor Internet kerfuffle among steamed fans of News Corp.'s (NWS) Fox News.

In the episode in question, Oscar the Grouch is a reporter covering, in breathless cable-news fashion, the trials and tribulations of Horatio the Elephant, who's trying to extricate himself from a bathtub. Oscar's quest for "all grouchy, all disgustin', all yucky" news goes awry when there's "breaking news" -- namely, Cookie Monster breaking a cookie.