Message from WGBH re "Postcards from Buster", "Sugartime"

See DU thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3055718

Note: The "Sugar Time" episode aired Wed, Feb 2 (WGBH 2/44). It will be rebroadcast on Mon, Feb 7, 7:30pm, 'GBH Kids (217).

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From: "feedback" <feedback@wgbh.org>
Subject: Re: childs_programs
To: (me)

Dear Viewer:

Thank you for your email. We always appreciate hearing from our
viewers. The feedback we receive, whether it is positive or negative,
invariably provides us with a better sense of our audience's expectations.

WGBH will air locally, as scheduled "Postcards from Buster's episode
“Sugartime” on March 23, 2005. We also will make this episode available to any local PBS station choosing to broadcast it. We believe, as do our advisors, that the program is appropriate for our audience and fits the series’ mission to introduce children to the rich and varied cultures that make up the United States, including kids living in a wide range of family structures.

The major goal of POSTCARDS FROM BUSTER is to help kids understand the richness and complexity of American culture, and to support the
language learning of children who are in the process of acquiring English. Over the course of the series we feature more than 45 different families, introducing young people from many ethnic backgrounds; exploring the role of religion in their lives; and visiting kids living in a variety of settings in cities, suburbs and the country.

Additional information about POSTCARDS FROM BUSTER is available online at: www.pbskids.org/buster

Your comments have been forwarded to our program director and the
producers of the program. It is an important part of the process of
programming for public television to benefit from the response of viewers.

Thank you for taking the time to write and for expressing an interest in WGBH programming.
--
Sincerely,
WGBH Audience and Member Services

WGBH enriches people's lives through programs and services that
educate, inspire, and entertain, fostering citizenship and culture, the joy of learning, and the power of diverse perspectives.

... make an extra donation to WGBH. Just a few dollars, but there is a space on the donation form to to say WHY you are donating. I thanked them for producing and airing "Sugartime." :)

https://www.wgbh.org/support/pledge/

of the govt funding being cut. A friend of mine, a film editor, was one of the people laid off.

.
paineinthearse, thanks for posting this info about . . . WGBH-TV who produces "Postcards from Buster." It's good to clear the air about all of this.

After all, it's the new Secretary of the Department of Education (DoE) Margaret Spellings (BostonGlobe article, 1/27/05) who is pushing arbitrary and subjective censorship of DoE fund granting to public television, not any WGBH-TV censorship!

WGBH-TV is willing and will distribute the episode of "Postcards from Buster" called "Sugartime" to any PBS affiliate who requests this episode. Thus, it is WGBH-TV who may suffer the slings and arrows of negative funding wrought by DoE's Spellings.

This episode is about Buster and his father's trip to Vermont to see and film maple syrup-making and maple sugar candy-making (hence the name "Sugartime") and cheese-making in Vermont as well as visit some children who are parented by two lesbians couples who have been legally jointed in civil unions under Vermont law. The Vermont family structure is a backdrop to the show, not a central theme.

The central theme of "Postcards from Buster" is to demonstrate various tasks, peoples, occupations, cultural settings including diversity that make up everyday life across America and to present it to its "PBS Kids" audience. As such Buster and his father have visited and filmed Mormon households, evangelical Christian households, Muslim households, and various other settings all across America.

Any negative funding in which PBS or WGBH finds itself as a result of the capricious, subjective, and arbitrary decisions of the Department of Education under Spellings has been caused by the GWBush Administration's rightwing politics and its religion-into-law agenda, not PBS and not WGBH!

Hit the causation of the censorship (DoE) not the victims of the censorship (PBS, WGBH, its employees, the Vermont families, and the audience of "PBS Kids") in this insidious debacle about, yet, another cartoon character for kids. (see DU post #2, notmyprez.)

---

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds19119.html

45 PBS stations to air inclusive 'Buster' ep

Wednesday, February 9 2005, 17:04 GMT -- by James Welsh

Postcards from Buster

WGBH confirmed today to Digital Spy that 45 PBS stations across America have signed on to air an episode of Postcards from Buster that includes a gay couple. The "Sugartime" episode of the animated kids programme examines farm life and maple sugaring in Vermont, a state which permits civil unions between same-sex partners. It just so happens that a couple in the programme who run a farm happen to be of the same gender.

A storm of controversy arose when the American education secretary, Margaret Spellings, criticised the programme: "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode. Congress' and the Department's purpose in funding this programming certainly was not to introduce this kind of subject matter to children, particularly through the powerful and intimate medium of television."

Following Spellings' comments, the PBS network decided to pull the episode from its 349 affiliate stations - while at the same time attempting to claim that the decision had nothing to do with the secretary's views. However, WGBH-TV Boston, the public TV station that produces the show, announced that it would go ahead and air the episode on March 23, and also offered the episode to all other PBS stations regardless of the network's official stance.

Today, a spokesperson for WGBH told Digital Spy: "We have 45 stations signed on to air the episode... These 45 stations, many in major markets, represent a little over 50% of public television viewership." The spokesperson added that more stations are signing on to air the episode every day, and that because the rights window is open for three years, stations can air the episode through 2008.

"The episode, which PBS decided not to distribute, shows the title character, an animated bunny, on a trip to Vermont." WRONG!!!! See response from WGBH above.

=======================================================

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Politics

Feb. 9, 2005, 11:57PM

Spellings defers on social agenda
The education secretary says cultural issues should be decided at state, local levels
By PATTY REINERT
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - New Education Secretary Margaret Spellings may have denounced a public television cartoon for including lesbian characters, but she said Wednesday that she has no intention of participating in culture wars that are sometimes waged in America's public schools. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, the 47-year-old former Houstonian declined to discuss how gay students or students with gay parents should be treated in the nation's public schools. Nor would she share her opinion on what should be taught in sex education classes or in science classes with regard to evolution, saying those are issues better resolved at the state and local levels.
"I'm not going to sit up here in Washington, D.C., and try to dictate that," she said, "but when federal tax dollars for programming that is widely available for preschoolers for the specific task of school readiness, I just think we can do those things and achieve those goals in a way that does not incite controversy."

Spellings, a former senior domestic policy adviser who helped design the Bush administration's "No Child Left Behind" law, made headlines last month by criticizing PBS for spending public money on an episode of Postcards from Buster, saying many parents would be uncomfortable with having young children exposed to gay issues on educational TV.

The episode, which PBS decided not to distribute, shows the title character, an animated bunny, on a trip to Vermont. The focus of the show is on farm life and maple sugar, but it features lesbian couples living in a state that recognizes civil unions for same-sex couples.
Spellings said Congress made it part of her job to oversee her department's "Ready to Learn" grant program, which requires that the money be spent on programming appropriate for young children and that it focus on reading readiness and literacy.

"I think we can do reading readiness for 6-year-olds in a way that does not get into issues of human sexuality," she said. But she said the Education Department has no role in micromanaging school districts. "We're not in the content business or the textbook business or the curriculum business," she said. "That is left to state and local folks to work out. ... That's not our role here in Washington. "It doesn't matter what I think about evolution," she said. "If I were in a state legislature, on a school board or on a state board of education, that would be fair game."

patty.reinert@chron.com

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBY9RES95E.html

PBS Chief Under Fire for Cartoon Show With Lesbian Couple Will Step Down in 2006

By Siobhan McDonough Associated Press Writer
Published: Feb 16, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) - Pat Mitchell, the Public Broadcasting Service chief under fire for spending public money on a cartoon show that also featured a real-life lesbian couple, will step down when her contract expires in June 2006. Mitchell, the nonprofit network's fifth president and chief executive officer, also faced significant fund-raising challenges.

She drew recent criticism from both liberals and conservatives for "Postcards From Buster," in which the title character, an animated bunny named Buster, traveled to Vermont - a state known for recognizing same-sex civil unions. Though the focus was on farm life and maple sugaring, the episode, entitled "Sugartime," featured an actual lesbian couple.

Newly appointed Education Secretary Margaret Spellings contended that the episode did not fulfill the intent Congress had in mind for programming and said many parents would not want children exposed to such lifestyles.

Mitchell, 62, who joined PBS in 2000, told PBS managers at its annual meeting Monday that she would not seek a third three-year term when her contract expired in June 2006. In a statement to the media, Mitchell made no reference to the "Buster" controversy. The network decided not to distribute the episode to its 349 stations. But the Boston public television station, WGBH-TV, which produced the series, has made it available to other stations.

more......

nt

This is the first news story I read on this matter and am posting it here as background information.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=101&e=2&u=/po/20050204/co_po/busterproduceraxedfromtvconference

'Buster' producer axed from TV conference

Thu Feb 3, 7:57 PM ET Community - Planet Out


Eric Johnston, PlanetOut Network

SUMMARY: The Department of Education (news - web sites) has canceled an invitation to the executive producer of "Postcards from Buster" to speak at a children's television conference in Baltimore. The Department of Education has canceled an invitation to Carol Greenwald, executive producer of "Postcards from Buster," to speak at a children's television conference in Baltimore on Friday, according to a PBS official.

The move followed last week's criticism by Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings about an episode of the "Postcards from Buster" cartoon that featured two lesbian couples in Vermont. PBS Executive Vice President Wayne Godwin told Broadcasting & Cable magazine that PBS President Pat Mitchell planned to send a letter urging Department of Education officials to change their minds about axing Greenwald from the schedule.


PBS and the Department of Education are cosponsoring the Baltimore conference. The Department of Education is in charge of the first two days of the schedule. Godwin said PBS is trying to schedule Godwin to speak during its portion of the conference. The episode of "Postcards from Buster" that raised the ire of Spellings featured the cartoon bunny on a trip to maple sugar farms in Vermont, a state that recognizes same-sex civil unions. During the episode, Buster visits with children who have lesbian parents. "Congress' and the Department's purpose in funding this programming certainly was not to introduce this kind of subject matter to children," wrote Spellings in the Jan. 25 letter to PBS.


Spellings' letter implied that she intends to use the Department of Education's Ready-to-Learn Television grants program as a means of preventing participating media projects from presenting inclusive images of same-sex families in the future. LGBT organizations criticized Spellings' reaction, including the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which is dedicated to promoting fair, accurate and inclusive representation of LGBT people in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination. "Secretary Spellings' attempt to create and enforce a policy of invisibility for gay and lesbian families is a profoundly offensive display of intolerance, one that imposes on our children an agenda of ignorance under the guise of 'education,'" said GLAAD Executive Director Joan M. Garry.

more........

Actually it is a canned email, but here it is.....(& by the way, they have not updated their "recipies" page).

From: Buster <buster@wgbh.org>
To: (me)
Subject: Re: Postcards from Buster feedback
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2005 22:28:38 +0000


Reply to: Re: Postcards from Buster feedback
Thank you for your recent e-mail about the Vermont episode of Postcards from Buster. We appreciate your your support of the series.

As you may be aware, the Vermont episode was part of the overall series’ goal to present a realistic and authentic representation of the lives and culture of kids all across America. To do this, Buster Baxter experiences, in a very kid-like way, the many expressions of children’s culture-- from the sports kids play, to the food they eat, the music they enjoy, the customs they celebrate, the family structures they live-in, and the role religion plays in their lives.
Ultimately, we hope to provide an educational program that children and their parents can watch, enjoy, and learn from together.

Again, we appreciate receiving your support and hope you continue to enjoy watching Postcards From Buster with your family.

Sincerely,

The Postcards From Buster Production Team



On Sunday, February 20, 2005 4:15 PM,
(I)
wrote:
>referer: http://pbskids.org/buster/parents/contact.html
>timestamp: Sun Feb 20 16:15:30 2005
>web_browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98;
>JUNO)
>
>The Vermont "Buster" episode is not about lesbianism, it is
>about making maple syrup. I hope you will update your recipes
>page - http://pbskids.org/buster/recipes/index.html - and add a
>clip soon. Please email me when done and I will help publicize
>it - I am a contributor to Democratic Underground, see my
>thread in support at
>http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=15
8x2958
>