On July 20, the Department of Education hosted an event called “Let’s Read! Let’s Move!” Children were given a choice of books to take home, one of which featured the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants… Fox & Friends jumped on this, spouting nonsense and falsehoods, also playing a clip of video from a SpongeBob cartoon that they said was aired at the event – The cartoon features the character Mr. Krabs saying, “Thanks to global warming, the temperature will soon go through the roof, and we’ll have an endless summer.”
CARLSON: “SpongeBob is talking a lot about global warming, and he’s only looking at it from one point of view”
CARLSON: “The government agency showed kids this cartoon and handed out books that blame man for global warming, but they did not tell kids that that is actually a disputed fact. Oops.”
DOOCY: “Clearly Nickelodeon is pushing a global warming agenda, and while there’s no disputing the fact that the earth is getting a little warmer, the big question is, is it man made, or is it just one of those gigantic climactic phases that we’re going [through]? … For a while we’re cold and then we get warmer and then we get colder and warmer, which one is it? There’s science on both sides. There are a lot of scientists who say, ‘It’s this,’ others say, ‘It’s that.’”
Apparently it wasn’t the Department of Education, but rather corporate sponsors like Target, Nickelodeon and United Way who provided the books. and, according to Tim Tuten at the Department of Education, there were no SpongeBob videos played at the event.
“We’ve never shown any videos ever, so I have no idea where that is coming from,” he said. Tuten added that participants were permitted to choose one of dozens of diverse books to take home with them and the SpongeBob book was one of those options.