Free Buster
Ladies and gentlemen, this country is in deep, deep trouble.
Now even PBS is carrying water for the misguided extremists in the Bush administration.
Now a cartoon character who visits families all across the country to show the diversity of our children's lives is not allowed to show a child who lives with two mothers.
In Vermont.
Where they're in a legal civil union.
And it was o.k. when the PBS president first viewed it, but then George Bush's education secretary (perhaps those last two words belong in quotation marks) said she didn't like it.
So PBS pulled it.
"Kids, if your parents are gay, we won't even show you on television."
Dear Lord, what have we become as a country? We have young men and women in our armed services dying every day in the name of "freedom."
Is this "freedom"? If it is, then as far as I'm concerned, the soldiers should all come home now.
This is not worth dying for.
| Posted at 12:00 AM | Permalink |
|
Comments (9)
Excellent point. I agree.
Posted by Justin | January 28, 2005 5:47 AM
Considering OPB cut the excellent NOW to 30 minutes after Bill Moyers left, and then hired Tucker Carlson, this isn't much of a surprise.
Posted by Cat | January 28, 2005 8:19 AM
I agree with your point, but that's a little melodramatic don't you think?
Posted by mike | January 28, 2005 8:25 AM
If every difference needs to be celebrated for our country (or any country) to be free, then they also need to do an episode about kids whose parents are alcoholic.
Posted by Dave | January 28, 2005 9:05 AM
Of course, because alcohol addiction and homosexuality are the same thing... brilliant.
Posted by Justin | January 28, 2005 9:28 AM
Jack, thanks for this eloquent post. The latest reason why, since the reactionaries took hold, I weep for my country.
Posted by Auggie | January 28, 2005 9:33 AM
It is sad.
Of course, if PBS wouldn't have to worry about government funding, it could broadcast with less restraint.
As long as the government is paying part of the bill, PBS will be influenced by those in charge.
I'm waiting for the day when liberals will start calling for an end to PBS funding because they believe conservatives are using it to spread their agenda, define relevant issues, shape debate, etc.
Sauce for the gander.
Posted by PanchoPdx | January 28, 2005 11:51 AM
It's not an agenda to show a family that exists. They exist! They live there! You show them, and they exist, and this is how they live. That's nobody's agenda. That's showing a kind of family that exists and is happy. Anyone whose value system requires concealing the existence of happy families headed by same-sex couples -- of which there are a ZILLION -- is hopelessly clinging to people's ignorance, and can't expect to survive very long that way.
The comparison to alcoholics is absurd and insulting. Alcoholism is scary and makes people suffer and is a thoroughly adult problem that carries consequences. You wouldn't show happy alcoholic parents where the alcoholism creates no problems, because that's LYING. Showing happy, functional families with two moms is THE TRUTH.
I consider this the precise moral equivalent of PBS pulling a show about a mixed-race couple because some bunch of idiots misses the days of antimiscegenation statutes. It's sickening, and PBS should be embarrassed and ashamed to its very core. If there is nothing for which you are willing to make a stand, then you are neither much of a journalist nor much of a human being. Absolutely a pathetic display from people who should know better.
Posted by Linda | January 28, 2005 1:39 PM
More sauce for the gander: when people lobby for increased federal involvement in education, don't be surprised when the feds get involved in education.
Posted by Just an old Federalist | January 28, 2005 10:38 PM