I think it's sad that someone like him who did have a good career and helped to educate a lot of children in reading and basic math through his character on Sesame Street had that messed up side to his personality. I'm almost wondering if the way this story is reported on isn't some kind of twisted attempt by the mass media to get people to feel sorry for adults caught with underage sex partners. They make the voice actor guy seem as if he would be a very likable person outside of these acts. I find that a bit strange.
Notice how the article ends on a positive note: "Now let's remember Clash and Elmo in happier times"
No, let's not! That's irrelevant. The guy was a 30 something taking advantage of a 15 year old boy. His "happy times" are irrelevant. Why end the article like that?
I remember seeing a lot of comments on youtube videos on Chris Hansen's "To Catch a Predator" show that were actually in favor of the guys being caught so that too might have backfired in the sense of creating some kind of sympathy for the predators rather than the victims. I remember that the point was made in one show that these people don't deserve any kind of sympathy because a lot of times the police would find deadly weapons or other things on the people that would fall into the trap that indicated they really meant the victim harm and weren't just violating a technicality. However the reaction a lot of people seemed to have to the show was different. I'm not sure why that happened unless society is somehow becoming more accepting of that kind of perversion.
Then you look at how Islam and Mohammed's perversion are portrayed and how it's anathema to call Mohammed a perverted pedophile even though the hadith make it clear that he was.
I think there must be some pro-pedophile advocates in major newsrooms that are helping to influence how some of these stories are handled.