New PBS Documentary Continues to Lie About School Book 'Bans'

One of the biggest fronts in the culture war has been fought over books in public school libraries. During and after the 2020 COVID lockdowns, when remote learning exposed parents to what their kids' schools were really teaching, parents started pushing back against inappropriate and sexually explicit books in schools.

This included books like "Gender Queer" and "All Boys Aren't Blue." During a 2023 hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) read from both of those books. The content was so explicit that the video came with a warning, as Townhall reported here.

At several school board meetings, parents and politicians who tried to read from the book were silenced because of the explicit content and told it was "inappropriate" for a public meeting. Somehow, the same Leftists had no problem with those books being in elementary and middle school libraries.

When schools removed the books from shelves, either of their own volition or after parent outcry or legislation, the Left screamed this was "censorship" and "book bans." In 2023, Libs of TikTok reported on the sexually explicit books in Fort Worth schools, prompting the school to remove the books and fire the person in charge of the library catalogue.

That prompted MSNBC host Ali Velshi to go on a tirade about the censorship of books and said the way to keep kids safe was to ban guns instead.

According to a new report from PEN America, public schools across the U.S. saw more than 6,800 book bans in the 2024-25 school year. A new documentary, “The Librarians,” examines the experiences of school librarians who’ve found themselves on the front lines of a battle against censorship.

...
Public school libraries across America have become battlegrounds in the culture wars. In a coordinated nationwide effort, groups are pushing bans on books they consider to be inappropriate for school age children. A new report from Pen America, the literature and human rights group, says that in the 2024-'25 school year, there were more than 6,800 book bans in U.S. public schools. 80% of them were in just three states, Florida, Texas and Tennessee.
A new documentary called "The Librarians" examines the experiences of school librarians who found themselves on the front lines in this battle against censorship, often at the cost of their well-being and their jobs.

PEN America describes itself as "stand[ing] at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world."

The inflated sense of self-importance is off the charts, with one woman featured in the documentary saying, "Part of the ethics of our profession to support the First Amendment and fight censorship," and another saying, "This is not a communist nation. You do not get to pick our reading material."

There's also plenty of hysterical alarmism, with another woman telling Yang, "I cannot imagine my face on the wanted poster and my friends being taken away in handcuffs."

Of course, there are exceptions to that rule. In Oregon, the education service prohibited books called "He Is He" and "She Is She" written by Ryan Bomberger's wife, Bethany. They also prohibited "Johnny the Walrus" by Matt Walsh. The education service said the books were "hostile expressions of animus toward another person," "transphobic," and "present a point of view that not everyone is going to agree with."

In San Francisco, a bookstore announced it would no longer sell J.K. Rowling's books due to the author's stance on transgender issues, writing:

In May of 2025, author JK Rowling publicly committed to using her private wealth from the Harry Potter series to develop the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund, an organization dedicated to removing transgender rights "in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces”.

With this announcement, we’ve decided to stop carrying her books. We don’t know exactly what her new “women’s fund” will entail, but we know that we aren’t going to be a part of it.

As a group of queer booklovers, we also had our adolescences shaped by wizards and elves. Look at us, it’s obvious. If you or someone you love wants to dive into the world of Harry Potter, we suggest doing so by buying used copies of these books.

There's also been a push to sanitize classic works for the sake of "modern audiences." Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, and works by other authors have been edited and censored to remove "offensive" content, thus fundamentally changing the work itself. There was a time the Bowdlerization of Shakespeare would offend the small-L liberals. Those days, apparently, are gone.

And we're certain none of those incidents will be included in the PBS documentary, and none of those librarians will speak out about any of them. As always, it's the hypocrisy. Choosing not to carry "He Is He," "Johnny the Walrus," or "Harry Potter" is not a ban. It is not censorship. But it would be nice if the same standard applied across the board. If it's wrong to keep the sexually graphic "Gender Queer" off the shelves for any reason, it should also be as offensive to keep "She Is She" out of elementary schools.

But the Left doesn't want fairness or equality. They want power. That's why they argue with a straight face that the aforementioned books must be banned because they "present a point of view that not everyone is going to agree with," but believe "Gender Queer" is not only a necessary title to have on the shelves, but that removing it is akin to something out of Orwell's "1984."

It's not.

Public schools, funded by taxpayer dollars, are required to carry the books that their school boards, politicians, and parents deem fit and appropriate. They are required to curate the library, just like they curate the rest of the school's curricula. Excluding certain books is not a "book ban." Every single book that librarians say is "banned" can be purchased on Amazon, at your local Barnes & Noble, or found in your public library.

These librarians are not heroes. They're not stalwart defenders of the First Amendment. But they are fundamentally dishonest about their work and what book bans actually are, and PBS is helping them spread those lies.