Update: More on the Buster brouhaha

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings doesn't look like her knickers are knotted, but looks can be deceiving.

In my earlier post on Spellings's successful attempt to censor the PBS Kids series Postcards from Buster, I neglected to mention that WGBH, the Boston public TV station that produces the show, is defying PBS and the gummint. WGBH plans to air the allegedly-offensive episode "Sugartime!" as originally planned, and is offering it to any station willing to risk Spellings's wrath. To let your local PBS station know whether you think it should air the episode (far be it from me to tell you what your opinion should be, except that you should agree with me), you can find contact information for your local PBS station here (I swiped this idea from Plattsburgh Liberal, one of the diarists on the political blog Daily Kos).

Plus, the inimitable Washington Post TV columnist Lisa de Moraes has weighed in on the controversy, providing valuable details about the episode, Spellings's threats, and WGBH's response. (You may have to register in order to see Moraes's column.) Moraes confirms my "reasonably-educated guess" about what happens in the show:

In the episode that knotted Spellings's knickers, Buster goes to Vermont and meets children from two families, who show him how maple syrup and cheese are made.

At one of the homes, Buster is introduced to all of the children and to the two moms. One girl explains that one of the women is her "stepmom," whom she says she loves a lot.

One of the women asks the kids to get some maple syrup and some cheese for dinner, and to stop by the other home to borrow a big lasagna pan. In the other home, Buster is introduced to the whole family, including two more moms. Then the kids head off to get the ingredients, and Buster learns where syrup and cheese come from.

So what's the problem here? Moraes says that according to Spellings, the "unique mission" of the Education Department's Ready-to-Learn program, which funded Postcards from Buster, is to use the television medium to help prepare preschool age children for school. The television programs that must fulfill this mission are to be specifically designed for this purpose . . . . We believe the "Sugartime!" episode does not come within these purposes or within the intent of Congress and would undermine the overall objective of the Ready-To-Learn program -- to produce programming that reaches as many children and families as possible.

Moraes, bless her, asks the obvious question:

Why, you might wonder, given that preschoolers who watch the episode learn how maple syrup and cheese are made, not to mention useful English-language phrases (the series is also designed to help children for whom English is a second language).

Because, Spellings explained in her letter, "many parents would not want their young children exposed to the life-styles portrayed in this episode." She did not say how many is "many," or cite a source for that information.

If Spellings is so worried about children being "exposed" to inappropriate "life-styles," how come she wasn't worried when Buster went to . . . . . . that den of iniquity (not to mention liberalism), Hollywood?

Anyhoo, Moraes interviewed WGBH's vice president of children's programming, Brigid Sullivan, who pointed out that the RFP -- "that's government-speak for request for proposals," Moraes explains -- on the show said Ready-to-Learn was looking for a program that would, in the words of the RFP itself, appeal to all of America's children by providing them with content and or characters with which they can identify. Diversity will be incorporated into the fabric of the series to help children understand and respect differences and learn to live in a multicultural society. The series will avoid stereotypical images of all kinds and show modern multi-ethnic/lingual/cultural families and children.

"Except, it would seem, children who have two mothers," Moraes notes.

Moraes also sheds light on how Spellings and her department found out about The Lesbian Problem in "Sugartime!": according to WGBH's Sullivan, representatives of the department, PBS, and WGBH meet routinely to discuss upcoming episodes of the show. At the December meeting, a WGBH rep mentioned "that there might be some 'buzz' on 'Sugartime!'"

I'll let Moraes have the last word:

PBS insists that although it made its decision not to distribute the episode on the very same day that the newly appointed Spellings decided to fire off her letter, the decision had nothing to do with the kerfuffle brewing at Education over the episode.

Which, we've said before in similar situations, sounds great if you were born yesterday; otherwise, not so much.