"Censorship!"

Chicago Sun-Times | Advocates for deaf charge censorship in closed captioning
The Bush administration has cut off its closed captioning for nearly 200 TV shows, prompting charges of secret censorship to promote an ideological agenda.

"Bewitched" and "Scooby-Doo" are out.

So are "The Simpsons," "Law and Order," some American Movie Channel documentaries, "A&E Investigative Reports" and "X-Men Evolution."

...Officials at the [Department of Education] now say, however, that they are acting on the "intent of Congress" to limit captioning to "educational and informational" programming.

"We in the Department of Education had external experts come in and help us determine the parameters for what would be appropriate," said Troy Justesen, deputy secretary for special education and rehabilitative services.

Sigh. Censorship? Has George Bush banned "Bewitched"? Has he issued a warrant for Wolverine's arrest? Has he even made it illegal to add closed-captioning to Bart Simpson? No. They've just been taken off the list of programs for which the federal Department of Education will pay for closed-captioning.

I'm not even sure there should be a federal Department of Education. I'm positive it shouldn't be paying for closed-captioning on "The Cisco Kid." And the department isn't even going to save any money! They're going to spend just as much taxpayer money on closed-captioning, they're just going to spend it on A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Nightly News and the Big Comfy Couch instead.

(Maybe they should reconsider the Big Comfy Couch...)

Here's the complete list of newly approved and disallowed shows.