<i>Postcards From Buster</i> producer reinvited to Department of Education conference after "misunderstanding" (15043)

Broadcasting & Cable magazine reports that Postcards From Buster executive producer Carol Greenwald has been reinvited to speak at a children's television conference sponsored by PBS and the Department of Education. Greenwald had been disinvited from the conference, but a DOE spokesperson says that Greenwald's being disinvited was a "misunderstanding" and that Greenwald was asked to rejoin the panel.

Buster has come under fire for an episode about maple sugar production in Vermont that features two lesbian couples and their families. Margaret Spellings, the new DOE secretary, had previously asked PBS either to not air the show or to yank the DOE logo from the episode and to refund the DOE grant money used to produce it. WGBH Boston, which produces Postcards From Buster, has made the show available to PBS affiliates that wish to air it. WGBH aired the episode, "Sugartime!" this week, as did some 30 other stations, arguing that it fit the parameters of the DOE's "Ready-to-Learn" grant just as much as other episodes of the Buster series.