Most inappropriate news writing I''ve ever seen.

[No Elephants]

{div class=excerpt]Elmo left behind on 'Sesame Street' as actor exits

By FRAZIER MOORE


NEW YORK (AP) -- Even on "Sesame Street," where everything is famously A-OK, problems can arise for its residents.

And that includes the Muppets. Cookie Monster grapples with an eating disorder. Oscar the Grouch gets cranky. Mr. Snuffleupagus gets the blues.

But Elmo seemed immune to any of that. Since enjoying his breakout success more than two decades ago, the 3 1/2-year-old red monster has radiated good cheer, love and trilling giggles. No wonder everyone - adults as well as children - adores him.

The key to Elmo is "his innocence, his positiveness and his sweetness," according to Kevin Clash, the man who created him and once told The Associated Press, "I would love to be totally like Elmo."

[Enthusiast]

1. Is it possible that Clash

is completely innocent? Once an accusation is made I find it hard to be impartial.

[No Elephants]

2. In his case, two accusations have been made, but, sure, it's possible.

Especially when the accused is perceived as having money to pay out in a settlement.

I have tried to be careful in my wording for that reason (but I am having the same issue you are--namely, great difficulty holding onto the presumption of innocence, especially since Sesame Street's own investigation lead them to say that it has suspended him for failing to follow Sesame Street's internet policy and the alleged victims accuse him of "trolling the internet for underage boys." If nothing else, risking a very high paying job over forbidden use of the internet suggest an obsession with the internet.)


But, whether or not Clash is guilty, partly innocent or entirely innocent, the subject of the story is still accusations of sexual assault and/or rape of minors. So, what this author was thinking with the cutesy joke-y lead is way beyond me, no matter what Clash's deal is.

If I were this author's editor, I would have never have let that lead go on a story like this.

I may even have forgotten my non-violent ideals and hit the author upside his head in the hopes that he would remember never to do anything this inappropriate again.