US News

Elmo’s really a pinko

Now they’re also political puppets.

Kermit the Frog, Cookie Monster and Elmo are spreading left-wing propaganda to kids, according to an explosive new book that hits stores today.

In “Primetime Propaganda,” conservative columnist Ben Shapiro accuses the long-running “Sesame Street” PBS series, adored by kids and parents around the world, of promoting a left-wing agenda.

Shapiro complains that after 9/11, “Sesame Street” execs tried to teach youngsters that conflicts should be resolved peacefully — implying that the United States should negotiate rather than go to war.

He also cites a 2009 episode that mocked Fox News.

The segment featured Oscar the Grouch working as a reporter for the Grouch News Network. It shows a viewer telling him: “From now on, I am watching Pox News. Now there is a trashy news show.”

In the book, published by HarperCollins, Shapiro also takes issue with the show’s take on other controversial subjects.

” ‘Sesame Street’ tried to tackle divorce, tackle ‘peaceful conflict resolution’ in the aftermath of 9/11, and had Neil Patrick Harris [a gay actor] on the show, playing the subtly named ‘fairy shoeperson’ ”

Spokesmen for the show and for PBS could not immediately be reached during the holiday yesterday.

Shapiro told the British newspaper The Independent that during his scores of interviews with media bigwigs, “I was shocked by the openness of the Hollywood crowd when it came to admitting anti-conservative discrimination inside the industry.

“They weren’t ashamed of it. In fact, some were actually proud of it.”

The Muppets are not Shapiro’s only target — he complains about left-wing bias on several other shows, including “Happy Days,” “Friends” and “M*A*S*H.”

He says he interviewed “Friends” co-creator Marta Kauffman, who told him how Newt Gingrich’s lesbian sister was cast to play a preacher at a lesbian wedding just to annoy conservatives.

“When we did the lesbian wedding, we knew there was going to be some flak,” she said, according to Shapiro. “When we cast Candice Gingrich as the minister of that wedding there was a bit of a ‘f- -k you’ in it to the right wing.”

As far as “M*A*S*H” goes, Shapiro says an executive told him, “We wanted to point out the wastefulness of war.”

And Shapiro said one of the “Happy Days” writers admitted to him that the show “had a whole subtext” of attacking the Vietnam War.

“If you really look for it, you can find it,” the writer says.

cynthia.fagen@nypost.com