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WEDU to air 'Postcards From Buster'

By Staff and wire reports
Published February 18, 2005

A controversial episode of the children's television show Postcards From Buster will air locally, but WEDU-Ch. 3 officials are inviting parents to decide if their children should see it.

The episode has animated rabbit Buster visiting Vermont children whose parents are lesbians. PBS declined to distribute the episode to its 349 member stations after it was criticized by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.

PBS chief Pat Mitchell announced this week that she will leave her post at the end of her contract next year. She made no mention of the Buster fray.

WEDU president and CEO Dick Lobo said station leaders decided to air the show at 9 p.m. Thursday, followed by a panel discussion to include a producer of the episode and Tracy Harris, one of the featured moms.

He encouraged parents to watch the episode and record it, then decide after listening to the discussion if it's appropriate for their children.

"This way, it's not a censorship issue, but it will also be entirely up to the parents if their children should see this episode," Lobo said.

The episode, called "Sugartime," focuses on maple sugaring in Vermont, and uses a two-mother family as part of the setting.

Lobo said producers at the Boston PBS station that produces the show approved of the way WEDU is handling it.

WEDU promotions coordinator Sylvia Vega said the station received several telephone calls and e-mails on both sides. Of the 349 PBS stations, 47 have aired it, she said.

Panelists expected for the discussion include Carol Greenwald, executive producer of Postcards From Buster at producing station WGBH, and David Caton, executive director of the Florida Family Association.

NEW YORK - Worried about the FCC, PBS is taking the words out of the mouths of some soldiers filmed during combat in Iraq.

The public broadcaster is distributing "clean" and "raw" versions of next Tuesday's Frontline documentary about the Iraq war, titled "A Company of Soldiers," and is warning it can't insure stations against FCC fines stemming from the language.

The documentary contains 13 expletives spoken by soldiers. Frontline producers decided to leave them in because it presented a true picture of how these men and women react to the fear and stress of war, said David Fanning, the show's executive producer.

PBS is warning its stations that if they want to risk an FCC fine for language, the system can't insure them, said senior programming executive Jacoba Atlas. To air the raw version, stations must sign a statement acknowledging the financial risk.

Since station managers were only informed of this on Thursday, Atlas said she had no count on how many stations would air each version.

[Last modified February 18, 2005, 00:14:17]