Salon asks: has PBS become the White House’s lap dog?

Mommygate is prompting a dialogue about tolerance. Columnist Ellen Goodman asks: “… how did acceptance become translated into propaganda? And what on Earth happens if tolerance is defined as intolerable?” (in the Seattle Times and other papers). But some religious figures warn that tolerance is dangerous if it lets schools “brainwash” kids to think every lifestyle is OK, AP reports.

The Los Angeles Times profiles Pacific Drift, a new show on the city’s KPCC-FM that aims “to create a community of creative people getting to know each other and interacting through the show,” in the words of producer Ben Adair.

The Washington Post‘s gossip column bids farewell to Tucker Carlson, who is moving to New Jersey for his new job with MSNBC.

New York Times culture critic Frank Rich takes aim at Bustergate, among other flaps, in this column about content cops and the campaign against indecency.

WETA-FM in Washington, D.C., may switch to an all-news format, reports the Washington Post.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings defended her Buster sanction yesterday, saying PBS viewers expect educational programming that is “very straight down the line,” according to the Toledo Blade. We think the pun was unintentional. (via mediabistro.com)

An installment of The Gillmor Gang features Hearts of Space host Stephen Hill discussing public radio’s reaction to podcasting and other developments in new media. (Via ILoveRadio.org.)

“I didn’t understand what all the hullabaloo was about,” KQED President and PBS Board member Jeff Clarke told the San Francisco Chronicle after screening cartoon bunny Buster’s visit with children in Vermont. The Boston Globe reports that the controversy over the “Sugartime” episode of Postcards from Buster coincides with talks over whether the PBS Kids series will be renewed for a second season.

We’ve added some new podcasters to our list, including Hearing Voices, Benjamen Walker and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

He’s no Elvis: The NPR fleece jacket purportedly worn by Bob Edwards has gone for $43 on eBay — $9 less than what you can pay for what looks like the same item at the NPR Shop.

Members of Metafilter discuss Minnesota Public Radio’s new KCMP, with reactions ranging from “Now I can finally listen to music on the radio again” to “I could be unlucky, but every time I turn it on it sucks.” More praise in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “The idea that Public Radio would venture beyond All Things Considered and the lesser-known works of Dvorak to offer an alternative to popular music is so sensible, both as a business and cultural decision, it is remarkable it took so long.”

When you’re Ira Glass’s girlfriend, “you have to put up with a lot of him thinking about his job rather than what’s going on in front of him,” says his squeeze in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The Association of Public Television Stations has struck a deal with the cable industry in which major cable operators will guarantee to carry as many as four program streams from all public television stations in their markets once the digital TV transition is complete. Public TV regards multicast carriage as essential if it is to take full advantage of digital broadcasting capabilities. Cable companies now are required to carry only stations’ primary video feeds—analog or digital—in the present period before the DTV transition is done. The agreement, yet to be ratified by stations, would be triggered when stations give back their analog spectrum.

At least five public TV stations have pledged to air a controversial episode of Postcards from Buster, dropped last week by PBS, that features two families headed by lesbian parents—despite strenuous objections by the nation’s new secretary of education, whose department provides significant funding for the series. About 20 other stations were considering running the show last week after viewing a preview tape that producer WGBH beamed by satellite to member stations on Thursday, said station spokeswoman Jeanne Hopkins. The controversy over the cartoon bunny comes at an awkward time for PBS, as it prepares to compete for renewed Ready to Learn funding from the Education Department.