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Follow CapCon on XMichigan Learning Channel blames “technical error” for airing of drag queen story time
Detroit Public TV says relationship with New York station that distributed the show will continue
Twice in December, the Michigan Learning Channel aired a youth-oriented program that featured drag queen story time.
The channel is a cooperative effort of public television stations in the state, offering online and over-the-air programs. Joseph Yezak, program manager of Delta College Public Media, a public broadcaster in the Midland area, says the episode was aired on Midland public television, which does not control the content.
A drag queen and an author who goes by the name of Lil Hot Mess read the book, “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish” during an episode (available on YouTube) of the series “Let’s Learn” called “Can You Hear The Long O in Bold?”
The drag queen segment takes roughly the first 14 minutes of show.
Perhaps sensing the pushback that would come, a disclaimer airs before the program:
An Amazon description of the book notes that it’s a play on the nursery rhyme and song, “The Wheels on the Bus.” The description calls the book “a fun, freewheeling celebration of being your most fabulous self.” The book includes characters such as “Cinderfella,” “Rosie Ringarounda,” and “Ella Menopipi.”
The description says the book “encourages readers to boldly be exactly who they are.” It continues: “This playful picture book offers a quirky twist on a classic nursery rhyme by illustrating all of the ways to ‘work it.’”
CapCon asked Matt Hamilton, programming director of the Michigan Learning Channel, about airing the drag queen story time. He says that Detroit Public TV received the programming from a public TV station in New York City “for early elementary school children.”
Hamilton says the program aired on Michigan stations due to a coding error, and it was shown “to audiences in the early morning on two dates – December 22 and 23.” Hamilton says the technical error has been fixed so the episode will not air again.
Georgeann Herbert, DPTV’s senior vice president of strategy, who is Hamilton’s supervisor, told CapCon that “if not for a technical mistake, our audience would not have seen it.”
“As a nonprofit community-governed broadcaster, we cannot and do not take stands on political issues but have a responsibility to make programming decisions on behalf of our audiences, which we did in this case,” Herbert wrote in an email.
Herbert said WNET, the New York station that produced the show, “is a longtime trusted provider of public television programming,” and added “our relationship with them will continue.”
The Michigan Learning Channel notes on its website that the show “Let’s Learn” is designed for children ages 3 through 8. It is a daily series meant to “curate high-quality, standards aligned video content,” both in and out of the classroom.
The MLC says its content “is aligned with Michigan’s educational standards and follows widely accepted sequences for mastering skills throughout the year.”
CapCon asked the Michigan State Board of Education and state superintendent of instruction for comment.
Martin Ackley, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Education, confirmed that the program was aired on two days in December. He said the department supports the learning channel “as a partner in providing free educational content to families,” but added that staff “do not review content before it is aired.”
The incident occurred several months after Attorney General Dana Nessel announced, at a conference hosted by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, that drag queens make everything better and “a drag queen for every school” is a good idea.
The Detroit Educational Television Foundation, which operates public media outlets WTVS-TV and WRCJ 90.9 FM, is a nonprofit organization. According to 990 forms filed with the IRS and available on GuideStar, it received $6.8 million in taxpayer funds in 2021.
Herbert said the Michigan Learning Channel “received state funding to launch during the pandemic, but we are not in the current Michigan budget.”
Detroit Public Television is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is funded by the federal government, Herbert said, but does not receive federal money directly.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.
CapCon’s Michigan Constitution Project: What we hope to achieve
In 2023, Michigan Capitol Confidential will study the state constitution
Michigan Capitol Confidential has begun The Michigan Constitution Project.
This year we will educate our readers on our state constitution, with the understanding that it has more depth than just the words on the page. Over time, a citizenry ignorant of the law and unwilling to hold bureaucrats accountable will lose its freedom. Let’s remain free.
Throughout the course of this series, readers will learn about:
Patrick Wright is vice president of legal affairs at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and one of the foremost legal minds on the Michigan Constitution. Wright will lend his expertise to better equip residents in holding the government, tasked with serving them, accountable.
Wright joined the Mackinac Center in June 2005. He previously served as a Michigan Supreme Court commissioner for three years. Wright also spent four years working on litigation and appellate advocacy as an assistant attorney general for Michigan state government. He also was a law clerk to U.S. District Judge H. Russell Holland, who serves in Alaska.
Wright earned a law degree in 1994 from George Washington University, where he graduated with honors. He has been published in numerous state and national media outlets and has appeared on state and national television and radio.
In representing the Mackinac Center and Michigan residents before courts, he has filed dozens of amicus briefs, including over a dozen with the United States Supreme Court. One of his briefs was cited in its 2018 decision Janus v. AFSCME. In his role at the Mackinac Center, Wright was involved in the following cases before the Michigan Supreme Court:
The case In re Rovas, 482 Mich 90 (2008), limited the power of state agencies to determine what the law says. The court held that under the separation of powers principle in Michigan’s constitution, Michigan courts will not defer to state agency interpretations of statutes, but will instead give those interpretations “respectful consideration.” In making this ruling, the state rejected an idea known in the federal judiciary as the Chevron doctrine. Under Chevron courts defer to agencies when questions of interpreting certain regulations arise.
In UAW v. Green, 498 Mich 282 (2015), the court ruled that the Michigan Civil Service Commission did not have the authority to force state employees to pay agency fees. It based the ruling on Article 11, Section 5 of the Michigan Constitution. This decision became less important a few years later. Under the 2018 Janus ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court, the First Amendment prohibits governments from requiring their employees to pay agency fees.
In both Rovas (interpretation of regulations) and Green (agency fees), the state’s high court accepted the reasoning the Mackinac Center presented in its amicus brief.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation worked with the Miller Johnson law firm to file the case In re Certified Questions, 506 Mich 332 (2020). The case involved Gov. Grethen Whitmer’s executive orders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Michigan Supreme Court held that the separation of powers principle in the state constitution did not allow Whitmer to assume legislative power (sometimes called the police power) indefinitely.
Sole v. Michigan Economic Development Corp, 509 Mich 406 (2022), involved state subsidies to corporations. The court asked the Mackinac Center to file an amicus brief on the statutory question of whether the MEDC had to disclose the full amount it had promised to General Motors.
The Mackinac Center’s brief pointed to Article 9, Section 23 of the Michigan Constitution, and the need to make all the state’s financial records available to the public. This led the court to interpret the statute to require disclosure of the full subsidy amount.
After this decision, GM admitted it received $3.8 billion in subsidies.
Informed and engaged citizens are paramount in protecting our freedoms and maintaining the proper role of government. Imagine if the Founding Fathers were ignorant of the ways that King George III unfairly applied the rule of law to colonists and ignored their right to representation. We may still belong to another country, or be divided among several.
The blood of our forefathers was spilled to protect our sovereignty. The least we can do is actively participate in our constitutional republic.
Jamie A. Hope is assistant managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential. Email her at hope@mackinac.org.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.
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