There seems to be a culture war between different stands on people. There are those who hope to spark systemic change that eliminates racism and sexism in society. There are also those who think “cancel culture” is out of control. All of these entered a new chapter on Friday with the White House incorrectly mourning the cancelation of a cartoon about dogs who are cops.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany publicly claimed on Friday that President Donald Trump is upset that Paw Patrol has been canceled along with other shows detailing police activity.
“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.”
The problem here is that only some of that was true. While LEGO did stop advertising sets and both the long-running Cops and Live PD were canceled amid historic protests against police brutality, the first stated victim of cancel culture simply didn’t happen. The official Paw Patrol Twitter account did say last month that it would pause posting on social media amid the ongoing conversation about race and police relations in America, a pause that has continued into late July.
That’s a long way from taking the children’s cartoon off the air, however, and there’s no indication that Paw Patrol has been canceled despite the White House explicitly saying it was canceled “weeks ago.” A new video game based on the show is on the way, and despite COVID-19 cancelations its live show is still scheduling dates in the future. According to Snopes, it hasn’t left the television airways, despite some parents best wishes. On Friday afternoon, the long-dormant account was forced to tweet a reminder that, no, the show was not canceled.
Snopes has some details about the people who either fell for some social media humor about the subject or simply are spreading misinformation to shock parents about the dangers of cancel culture. Anyway, here’s a coronavirus hand-washing PSA from the pups.
It’s yet another entry into the weird chronicle of experiencing pop culture in 2020. And it seems clear that some misinformation about Paw Patrol under attack made its way into the White House and was believed. Or, perhaps, it’s another case of satirical website The Onion being taken seriously.
