PBS's anti-father documentary Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories was co-produced by Connecticut Public Television and Tatge/Lasseur Productions. Roger Catlin, the Hartford Courant's TV Critic, today noted that PBS is "responding to harsh criticism" of the documentary "by commissioning a second documentary on the same subject to air this spring. But CPTV won't be producing it."

In his new column 2nd Child-Custody Program To Air: PBS Says This Time CPTV Won't Produce Program (Hartford Courant, 1/6/05), Catlin quoted from PBS's December 21 statement that the hourlong documentary commissioned for spring 2006 "will allow ample opportunity for doctors, psychologists, judges, parent advocates and victims of abuse to have their perspectives shared, challenged and debated."

According to Catlin:

"It is not clear who will make the follow-up documentary, PBS spokeswoman Jan McNamara said Wednesday. 'Our programming department is talking to a number of filmmakers outside of Breaking the Silence's producers,' she said. But, she added, CPTV will not co-produce again. 'It would be done by another production team.'"

Newspaper columnist Glenn Sacks, one of the leaders of the protest campaign against the film, noted that "McNamara and PBS appear to be trying hard to walk right down the middle on this without alienating either side. That's fine--all we wanted from the beginning was balance. If PBS had taken a balanced approach to Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories, there would never have been this controversy."

In his column Catlin also noted that Corporation for Public Broadcasting ombudsman Ken Bode "called PBS' decision for a second documentary 'welcome news,' but said its timetable gives it 'a very short deadline.'"