http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/01/26/education.secretary.pbs.ap/index.html


http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/01/27/fallout_from_postcards_decision/
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Every time I hear about another controversy about a "gay agenda" in children's programming, I want to go out and beat a bigot. Would that be a hate crime?

I don't know why this is such an issue. I suspect that if the entertainment industry would stop listening to these criticisisms, they'd mostly go away. I don't think any media bloc is in danger of being driven out of business by a boycott because of some small-minded gay-hater group.

What age range is that show intended for?

They've been busy lately. A few days ago I read two seperate articles about similar groups going after Spongebob Squarepants (for being in a video promoting tolerance) and a Junior high's initiative to declare a "No Name Calling Week," because apparently not allowing kids to bully others by calling each other gay in various impolite ways advances some sort of evil homosexual agenda. I'm starting to wonder why the media considers all three of these events newsworthy. I could see reporting one with a reference to the other two, but do they really need to waste this much effort on three stories that are essentially the same?

The show is an offshoot of "Arthur", starring Arthur's friend Buster. You see, Buster's dad is an airline pilot and...I think might be divorced from his mother. Anyhoo, Buster goes to spend part of the year with his dad int he show and he communicates with Arthur by sending postcards of all the places he's been to. What the new show does is take live-action footage of the different states and inter-cut them with the animated bunny. It's intended for kids in around second, third, and fourth grade, I'd say.

Somehow I doubt the same-sex couple was a focus of the show. "Look kids, here's a healthy modern relationship. Boy, this pisses off the extreme right, though!" More than likely, they just happened to be the people they talked to about the other subjects of the program. I bet they're not even mentioned as being a couple...just the owners of a farm.

However, this isn't to say that Public Television, like Public Radio, doesn't have a leftist slant. I do think they're overreacting, though. When they show Bert and Ernie making out in public, then I'll be worried.

Yeah, if it was mentioned as CS explained...no biggie. I can't support taking issue with that type of exposure.

Expert from the second article:

Sorry to speak all in quotes, but I'm at work and can't really type anything of length until I get home.

The show's format (aimed at 6-10 year olds) has Buster the bunny interviewing kids and learning how things work. So the lesbian couples probably come up when the kids say something like 'And these are my parents, Jane and Jill, who blah blah blah...'

Because, of course, to their eleven-year old daughter, the lesbian mothers probably don't seem weird at all.

I just hope that the little girl isn't disappointed. So sweet of the secretary of education to tell the whole country that her mommies are immoral and, due to their unnatural connection, can't show anybody else in the country how to make syrup.

Lovely.

Well, after Bush weaseled out of supporting any kind of anti-gay amendment to the Constitution; they had to do something to keep the fools who voted on that basis from wising up and bolting the GOP. This was clearly the something.

In Oz recently, we had a similar squeal of outrage when, in Playschool, a children's program for under fives, showed a story where a couple of ladies took a couple of kids to the park. The focus was on the play equipment. One of the kids did the voiceover and refered to the ladies in the item as her 'mums'. Yes, they were a same-sex couple with kids, being depicted as a normal family unit. Oh the scandal!

The people objecting to this episode claimed that our staid national broadcaster had harmed the poor, innocent children who watched that show by exposing them to the possiblity of having same-sex parents.

Still, it blew over pretty fast.

So, is it the case that Secretary of Education Spelling is opposed to long term committed relationships for the raising of children? Hmmm....

I don't know if I should laugh at the people shocked by this and then ignore them or if I should be scared.

One wonders what kind of message these fundies want sent to their kids. Maybe they want a cartoon that starts out, "Hey kids, today we're going to learn to hate and dispise all those who are different from us!"
I read about this episode. All that happens is the kids show a picture of their parents and refer to them as their "mom and step-mom". Then they proceed to tap maple trees.
I don't know, perhaps maple syrup is now considered evil!

Now, to show my inner geek on this. Back when I was a lad, the old "G.I. Joe" cartoon had an episode where COBRA takes over all the TV broadcasts. One thing COBRA shows is an evil-smurf cartoon called "The Likeibles" which teaches children that only "when everybody acts alike and looks alike, we can all be happy". With this PBS flap, and the furor over Spoonge-Bob, this episode emerged from my memory, and I thought "Hey, I bet the fundies would like that show."

The Meeja is currently obsessed with Culture War Stories. They're giving the Loonies waaaaaay more attention than is warranted. These are the same groups that probably rag on TV shows for showing divorced or single or unmarried-and-living-together parents. It is routine for them. They probably have people who sit there watching television all day long just to see if they can spot something 'offensive'. (Yeah? Well how about all the blood and gore?)