A Cartoon Rabbit Visits Two Lesbian Families and Soldiers Actually Swear In A Documentary about Iraq -- It’s All Too Much for US Public Broadcasting and They’re Looking for a New PBS Boss

Philip Stone February 21, 2005

With the House of Representatives approving a bill in record time to increase indecency fines from $$32,500 to $500,000, the US Secretary of Education demanding a refund of the department’s funding for a cartoon show because it featured a rabbit visiting a lesbian couple, and having to re-edit an Iraq war documentary for fear some of the language falls foul of indecency regulations, is it any wonder the CEO of the Public Broadcasting System says she is not looking to extend her contract!

Pat Mitchell PBS CEO/President

Pat Mitchell, President and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), shocked the annual members meeting in telling them she will not seek a third term when her current contract expires in June, 2006. She claims it has nothing to do with the tough time she has endured recently from the politicians, but few in Washington really believe that.

Problems began when Margaret Spellings, the new US Secretary of Education in President Bush’s second term, did not see the humor in a cartoon – financed by her department -- featuring a bunny visiting two lesbian families. The program is aimed at 6 – 10 year olds.  “Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the life-styles portrayed in this episode,” she wrote to Mitchell. Although Mitchell had previously approved televising the episode she withdrew distribution the day Spellings sent her letter.

Because of the way PBS is organized, even though PBS will not distribute the cartoon program its owner, WGBH in Boston, is offering it to any PBS station that wants it and thus far some 47 stations, including most of the major markets, have said they will show it.  That, however, does not include the PBS station in Washington. Too close to home!

Incidentally, Mitchell did pick up support from Representative Barney Frank of Boston, an openly gay member of Congress. He fired a letter to Spellings telling her, he was “sorry that young people all over this country who happen to be gay or lesbian have now learned that the person picked by the President of the United States to help with their education has such a fundamentally negative view of their very existence.”

No sooner was the bunny back in its hutch than PBS got itself embroiled in another controversy. WGBH – yes the same Boston station that produced the rabbit – has produced “A Company of Soldiers” a 90-minute documentary featuring the lives of the US Army’s Eighth Cavalry Regiment stationed in Baghdad.

The soldiers talk soldier-talk, and that means at least 13 instances of bad language. In today’s US television world where the FCC has already ruled that using the “F” word can get you into trouble with large fines, and it won’t give any opinion about appropriateness until after a program airs and it receives complaints, PBS decided the documentary needed to be edited. So it took out the swearing and told stations it would make both versions available, but any station running the raw version had to sign a legal waiver that left PBS financially blameless.

Many stations have said they will run both versions, but the raw one gets put on late at night.

Previous experience, based on the showing of the unedited Saving Private Ryan film would indicate the FCC will not have a problem with the documentary since whatever bad language was used could be deemed to be appropriate in the given circumstance, but it is not knowing that for sure before the telecast that scares many broadcasters.

PBS has a narrow string on which it walks. It receives government funding for some programs – such as the bunny cartoon series – and it relies on corporate underwriting that came to $184.3 million last year. There is no license fee. Corporations underwrite programs to embolden their image – they do not want to be associated with programming that generates political disputes.

Mitchell says she hopes to spend the bulk of her remaining time on improving PBS’ finances.

The new House indecency bill is not yet the law of the land. The Senate is working on its own indecency legislation – for instance, the fines are lower -- and once their version is passed it must go to a joint House-Senate committee to compromise the details. Last year the legislation got killed in that joint committee, but the betting in Washington is that with this new Congress the committee will issue a joint bill.