Jolie Rouge

Tue Jan 25, 9:47 PM ET
By BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON - The nation's new education secretary denounced PBS on Tuesday for spending public money on a cartoon with lesbian characters, saying many parents would not want children exposed to such lifestyles.

The not-yet-aired episode of "Postcards From Buster" shows the title character, an animated bunny named Buster, on a trip to Vermont — a state known for recognizing same-sex civil unions. The episode features two lesbian couples, although the focus is on farm life and maple sugaring.

A PBS spokesman said late Tuesday that the nonprofit network has decided not to distribute the episode, called "Sugartime!," to its 349 stations. She said the Education Department's objections were not a factor in that decision. "Ultimately, our decision was based on the fact that we recognize this is a sensitive issue, and we wanted to make sure that parents had an opportunity to introduce this subject to their children in their own time," said Lea Sloan, vice president of media relations at PBS.

However, the Boston public television station that produces the show, WGBH, does plan to make the "Sugartime!" episode available to other stations. WGBH also plans to air the episode on March 23, Sloan said.

PBS gets money for the "Postcards from Buster" series through the federal Ready-To-Learn program, one aimed at helping young children learn through television. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said the "Sugartime!" episode does not fulfill the intent Congress had in mind for programming. By law, she said, any funded shows must give top attention to "research-based educational objectives, content and materials."

"Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode," Spellings wrote in a letter sent Tuesday to Pat Mitchell, president and chief executive officer of PBS.

"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." She asked PBS to consider refunding the money it spent on the episode.


With her letter, Spellings has made criticism of the publicly funded program's depiction of the gay lifestyle one of her first acts as secretary. She began on Monday, replacing Rod Paige as President Bush's education chief.

Spellings issued three requests to PBS.

She asked that her department's seal or any statement linking the department to the show be removed.

She asked PBS to notify its member stations of the nature of show so they could review it before airing it.

And she asked for the refund "in the interest of avoiding embroiling the Ready-To-Learn program in a controversy that will only hurt" it.

In closing, she warned: "You can be assured that in the future the department will be more clear as to its expectations for any future programming that it funds."

The department has awarded nearly $99 million to PBS through the program over the last five years in a contract that expires in September, said department spokesman Susan Aspey. That money went to the production of "Postcards From Buster," and another animated children's show, and to promotion of those shows in local communities, she said.

The show about Buster also gets funding from other sources.


In the show, Buster carries a digital video camera and explores regions, activities and people of different backgrounds and religions. On the episode in question, "The fact that there is a family structure that is objectionable to the Department of Education is not at all the focus of the show, nor is it addressed in the show," said Sloan of PBS. But she also said: "The department's concerns align very closely with PBS' concerns, and for that reason, it was decided that PBS will not be providing the episode." Stations will receive a new episode, she said.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._secretary_pbs
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On the Net:

Postcards from Buster: http://pbskids.org/buster/


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Without seeing the episode, it is hard to make a judgement call. How is it handles : "These two women own this farm together ..." or "These two women live together and have SEX !" Another Tinky Winky Scandal ?


Education Department: http://www.ed.gov

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Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

SpongeBob & the Asexual Crustaceans
Fri Jan 28, 1:00 PM ET
By Josh Grossberg


He's square, he lives in a pineapple under the sea, his best friend's a starfish.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Stephen Hillenburg, the 43-year-old creator of Nickelodeon's hit cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants, is setting the record straight regarding the sexuality of his highly absorbent 'toon, days after conservative Christian activists accused SpongeBob of advocating a homosexual agenda by appearing in a video holding hands with pal Patrick the Star Fish.


SpongeBob, says Hillenburg, is not gay. He's just an animated sea creature.


"[Sexuality] doesn't have anything to do with what we're trying to do," Hillenberg told Reuters on Friday from Singapore, where he's attending the Asian premiere of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. "We never intended them to be gay. I consider them to be almost asexual. We're just trying to be funny, and this has got nothing to do with the show."


Hillenberg says that politics have never factored into the show and that the titular sea sponge's sole goal in his porous life is simply to be fun and entertaining--despite the show and its merchandise's obvious popularity among gays.


The SpongeBob brain trust came to the 'toon's defense after a full-blown controversy erupted this week when James Dobson, a Christian radio evangelist and founder of the group Focus on the Family, issued a warning to parents claiming the nave yellow critter and his crustacean compatriots advocated a "pro-homosexual video."


Dobson and his minions believe a music video made by the nonprofit We Are Family Foundation to promote the ideas of tolerance and diversity is really just a cover promoting the gay lifestyle. The video is being distributed to 61,000 U.S. elementary schools and features more than 100 cartoon characters, including SpongeBob, Barney and Big Bird. "Their inclusion of the reference to 'sexual identity' within their 'tolerance pledge' is not only unnecessary, but it crosses a moral line," Dobson said.


The brouhaha over SpongeBob and his Bikini Bottom mates' sexuality is absurd in Hillenberg's opinion. "I really don't pay much attention to this," the creator, a former marine biologist and father of a six-year-old boy, told Reuters.


Hillenberg said that SpongeBob is just the latest in a long line of kiddie characters to be "outed" by right-wing zealots, a list that includes Scooby-Doo's Velma, Peanuts' Peppermint Patty, Sesame Street's Bert & Ernie and Teletubbies star Tinky Winky, who was targeted by evangelicals in 1999 for supposedly symbolizing gay pride because he's purple, has a triangle on his head and carries a purse.


After being much mocked in the media for his outbust, Dobson "clarified" his remarks, saying he was attacking the group behind the video, not SpongeBob.


The religious leader's crusade might also be the result of a mix-up, since the We Are Family Foundation responsible for the video happens to have the same name as an unaffliliated pro-gay and lesbian group.


Meanwhile, coming to SpongeBob's defense was the 1.3 million-member Cleveland-based United Church of Christ. "The UCC extends an unequivocal welcome to SpongeBob," said general minister and president, the Reverend John H. Thomas, adding that the church has no problem with Barney, Big Bird, Tinky Winky or Clifford the Big Red Dog, either. "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we."


Thomas also called out Dobson. "While Dobson's silly accusation makes headlines, it's also one more concrete example of how religion is misused over and over to promote intolerance over inclusion," Thomas said.

Controversy or not, SpongeBob is sticking around for awhile. His first movie continues to invade overseas markets, and Nickelodeon has ordered 20 additional episodes for the small screen.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...en_tv_eo/15804

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Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Commentary: 'Buster' and the lesbians
TV critic asks: What's the big deal?
By Frazier Moore -- Associated Press
Tuesday, February 15, 2005


The character Buster has traveled all over North America.


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. (Check local listings for airtime.)

For "Sugartime!" (which refers not to sex, gay or straight, but to maple sugaring), Buster went to Vermont. There he visited a group of cute kids who ride bikes, jump in the hay, make chocolate chip cookies, cozy up to a bonfire, and show him how syrup begins as sap from maple trees.

As usual, this episode, filmed last March, centers on youngsters. But glimpsed as well are the parents, two couples who seem altogether unremarkable. Except they're all women. This detail scarcely escapes Buster's notice. When one little girl refers to her mother and stepmother, Buster remarks, "That's a lot of moms!" Nothing more on the subject is said or done, however. And no one breathes the L Word.

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."

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson agrees. "At its heart, the issue before us is the 'sexual reorientation' and brainwashing of children by homosexual advocacy groups," Dobson wrote on his Web site.

'Sensitive in today's political climate'

Of course, no child watching this episode is any more likely to be brainwashed into becoming gay than into copying Buster and growing rabbit ears. The danger, such as it is, lies elsewhere. The episode's two couples -- Karen and Gillian, and their friends Tracy and Gina -- come across as perilously likable people and loving parents. They're awfully hard to distinguish from acceptable folks. It might be tricky, then, to convince a child who's "exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in this episode" that these women should be demonized for being who they are. As usual, information is a threat to blind prejudice.

Granted, even Dobson draws the line on his character attacks. Recently he has emphatically denied ever calling SpongeBob SquarePants gay (you almost expect him to proclaim, "Some of my best friends are sponges"). But he hasn't backed down from his assertion that a kid-targeted video starring SpongeBob and dozens of other cartoon characters has a more sinister motive than simply preaching diversity. He warns that it's all part of a crusade "to promote homosexual ideas and purposes."

Donald Wildmon, head of the American Family Association, is sounding the same alarm. Writing on his Web site that "the homosexual community has long used PBS ... to promote their agenda," he hails Spellings "for her bold stand."

But what, to some, seems a bold stand is, to others, just pandering to a strident pressure group. Consider PBS' own excuse for yanking the episode: It was deemed "sensitive in today's political climate," a spokeswoman was quoted as saying.

One of the moms, Tracy Harris, sees herself as a longtime PBS viewer done wrong. "I had a lot of faith in them to do the right thing and to give a voice to people who I feel are underrepresented in the media," she says, adding, "As a teacher and as a parent and as a taxpayer, I feel betrayed by Secretary Spellings."

Says Gina D'Ambrosio, a social worker partnered with Harris for nine years, the busting of "Buster" has turned "a beautiful series about life in America into what feels like an issue of invalidation and fear and censorship."

Both women praise Boston's WGBH, which, in the wake of PBS' defection, is making "Sugartime!" available to PBS stations. So far, 42 have stepped up, with airings that began last week and will stretch into March.

These pockets of resistance have proved heartening to the kids in the episode. Understandably, they were crushed on learning that, among everyone visited by "Postcards from Buster," they were singled out by a federal official as unfit for the nation to see. What a cruel lesson from the country's education czar and those who support her: Out of sight, out of mind.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/0....ap/index.html

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Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

YankeeMary

I think Buster looks like Arthur...lol...

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JKATHERINE

They're from the same author--Marc Brown.

And as for the issue at hand....I go with two choices; "It raises pertinent issues," and "They're cartoon characters--get a life!."

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Azriel_LittleHawk

OK!! now we're getting REALY stupid. it's a CARTOON!! hello??
y'know, i'm taking family sociology and , guess what folks? the "normal american family" ie the nuclear family? is a like 10 % at most of the poulation , and here we have people getting upset over this? grow up! the education secratery needs to pull the ole head outa the rear end and get a real close look at how the schools are rating, worldwide. cause folks? it's getting bad!! as for the "family form" in question? who cares? is the child healthy an happy in the cartoon? is she beaten? neglected ?

i say good on Busters show! and applaud the author of the show. my kids love that show watch it whenever it's on. i have no problem whatsoever them watching it. encourage it in fact. makes me GLAd i don have cable, i mean have y'all seen what is on cartoon network ? um nope. my kids are doing REALY well in school, and in no small part to the cartoons they watch daily on PBS!!


this is so..laughable..it would actualy be funny if not for the sheer dsadness of it.
whatever. IT IS A CARTOON!!! GET OVER IT!!!

i have a small question though...why is the sec. of Ed. watching a cartoon geared for children? kinda weird idn't it?


ciao!
Az

llbriteyes

Its so they can censor stuff.

buttrfli

Maybe they are half brothers LOL


I get quite sick of people telling me howt o raise my kids. If I want them to watch the shows I will, if not, they won't.

My kids know exactly what a homosexual is and they know that there is nothing wrong with it (flame away because thats how I will raise my children) My kids know because last summer there were 2 young men holding hands in the mall and they had ALL kinds of questions and I was honest and now they could really care less.

I can pick something from every cartoon I have ever seen and find something wrong with it.. but thats only if I LOOK. Kids don't try to analyze cartoons, they watch them and with some (Like Artuhur) they might learn something, like why its good to nice to new kids.. stuff like that.

I am 100% against censorship... even if it is to protect children, because thats MY job. I realize that there are parents out there who don't parent and their kids need to be protected, but if a child has a bad parent, a cartoon is the least of his/her worries.

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My Feedback

llbriteyes

Darn right!

Linda

Tisky67

Hey my kids know that their cousin Jana has 2 mommies. Heck, my dearest most cherished friend in the world (yes he is gay & he is the only guy I can gripe to about men & he gripes back), him & his partner are about to become fathers. My kids know that the world is made up of all different people & that is what makes everyone special.

ON THAT NOTE -

All of us in our 20's & 30's, we grew up watching Sesame Street. Burt & Ernie were just room mates to all of us. We are fine & probably better people for the shows that were on & gave us lessons about how people are different.

If a TV is replacing parenting then those parents should not have kids.

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laughsalot

I dont have any kids so I probably dont have a dog in this race but Right on Buttrfli! My thoughts exactly!

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Proud Aunt to Logan and Baby Mason