Update on the affair that almost nobody calls Mommygate: In a Houston Chronicle interview, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings positions herself as an opponent of federal intervention in curriculum about homosexuality, evolution and other topics.”I’m not going to sit up here in Washington, D.C., and try to dictate that,” she said. Meanwhile, PBS President Pat Mitchell has asked for an internal probe into the gay moms blowup, says the Los Angeles Times. Stations reaching at least half of U.S. households have aired the Buster episode condemned by Spellings, Current will report in its Feb. 14 issue, which features an extended interview with Mitchell on pubTV’s recent weeks of Heck.

A report released by the Miami-Dade school superintendent calls for the district to exert more control over programming decisions at WLRN-TV/FM, according to the Miami Herald.

Read the “Special Non-Gay Edition” of comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug.

Three Senators introduced a bill today that would allow the licensing of more low-power FM radio stations.

Karl Haas, host of Adventures in Good Music, died Feb. 6 at the age of 91. He had hosted the classical music show since 1959.

More than 20 pubTV stations have aired the gay moms episode of Postcards from Buster, or plan to, producing station WGBH told the press. Included are big ones in Chicago (says the Tribune), Los Angeles (says UPI), San Francisco (says Insidebayarea.com), San Diego (says the Union-Tribune) and Seattle (says the Post-Intelligencer). Also: the Oregon network (press release), the North Carolina’s UNC-TV (says ABC11, Durham), Buffalo (says the gay paper Outcome Buffalo) and Spokane (ABC affiliate KXLY-TV). Some are airing it in daytime hours when kids are watching (S.F., San Diego, Seattle, Buffalo, Spokane). Among those choosing not to air the show, at least for now, are those closest to Capitol Hill: WETA and Maryland PTV (says DC’s gay Blade), as well as stations in Kentucky and Cincinnati (Cincinnati Post) and Moline, Ill.

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.