Sesame Beginnings- Bad?

The folks over at Sesame Workshop have developed Sesame Beginnings, a new infant brand that teaches parents interactive techniques and fun activities that encourage early learning in a way both they and their child will enjoy.

Featuring favorite Sesame Street characters such as Elmo, Big Bird, and Cookie as babies, the line of infant products will inform and inspire parents while entertaining and delighting their little ones. Sesame Beginnings encourages parents to use shared moments with their children to stimulate infants’ cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development.

The new line of videos is set for release today has outraged some child-development experts who feel no form of TV or video is suitable for kids under 2. BUT my question is- WHY NOW? What about Baby Einstein? What about Teletubbies? What about Fisher Price’s line of videos? What makes Sesame Beginnings so much more controversial? The American Academy of Pediatrics is afraid that the videos will promote more television watching for the 0-2 year olds of America and that it is designed to get them into the characters early so that they can sell more products. I don’t doubt that basic capitalism is the intent here but come on…The market for infants is already huge and personally I would rather see them watching Sesame Street then some of the other stuff out there. I grew up with Sesame Street and- miraculously- I am ok.
Sesame Beginnings is designed to promote interaction between the parent and child, which most other videos don’t do. I mean how interactive can you get with Dragon Tales? My daughter has learned a lot from her Baby Einstein videos and from Teletubbies. I think there is some wonderful programming out there and it is our responsibility as parents to carefully screen what it is they watch and how age appropriate it is. I think one should never use the TV as a baby sitter. (Though I am guilty of doing this from time to time) The American Association of Pediatrics should be promoting this. AND promote the importance of doing activities other then watching TV. It is important for the kids to get outside, to engage in play etc…rather then zone out in front of the boob tube.
Fact: a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 68 percent of all babies under 2 years old watch screen media on any given day.
Considering that most of us don’t have the power to change that-Wouldn’t it be better for them to benefit from it?