Posted on 02/15/2005 7:06:10 AM PST by pissant
NEW YORK (AP) -- If the tape from WGBH had come in a plain brown wrapper, I wouldn't have been surprised. The fuss over this episode of "Postcards From Buster" -- you know, with the lesbian mothers -- had me nervous it might be a junior version of "The L Word."
You must have heard. Last month U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings upbraided PBS for spending tax dollars to make the episode, titled "Sugartime!" Then PBS, while denying it was caving to her pressure, displayed all the signs of caving with the announcement that it wouldn't distribute "Sugartime!" to its 349 stations.
But thanks to series producer WGBH (which is providing the episode to any PBS stations that want to air it) I had scored a copy. I popped it in my VCR, pulled down the shades and took a peek.
Go figure! This episode is pretty typical of "Postcards from Buster," a gentle, informative series about a camcorder-toting cartoon bunny who explores different cultures and communities, then reports back to his friends at home (as well as to his 4-to-8-year-old audience) through live-action video "postcards" showing the people he meets. (snip)
But by daring to include two of the nation's 168,000 gay-parented households (joining Pentecostal Christians, Muslims, Mormons and Hmong among those represented on the series) "Buster" was busted.
"Congress' and the department's purpose in funding this programming certainly was not to introduce this kind of subject matter to children," Spellings wrote PBS head Pat Mitchell. (The Department of Education anteed up $5 million, two-thirds of the budget for the series' 40 episodes.) "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in this episode."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I still say that we are forcing all this "sex talk" on kids too early, no matter what it is.
It's a shame we have to teach them about amber alerts and child abduction, for their own safety. But we do. How much more sex should we get their minds working on?
There is something terribly disturbing about people who want to do this to kids. If Hugh Hefner produced videos for schoolkids seeking to "increase tolerance" for the lifestyle he has embodied, I'm sure everyone would see the point I'm trying to make.
Let kids be kids for a while!
Just my opinion.
I think that's the episode where Buster gets shot and eaten. A real tear-jerker from what I've heard.
Because it was produced by PBS.
LOL. Good answer.
If we stop funding PBS through our tax dollars, they can show whatever families they want on their cartoons.
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