"In fact, had I . . . seen the connection that might be drawn," she said, she would have concluded that "I'd better be sure and say that. It didn't occur to me. . . . I just wanted to be clear that I've got 15 months left on this job and let's make it as constructive as we can."

Three days before the letter was sent, PBS spokeswoman Lea Sloan was quoted in the Boston Globe saying that Mitchell had reviewed the episode and was satisfied with its contents. "She's seen it; we now feel comfortable," Sloan said.

The day the letter was sent, PBS announced it would not distribute the episode, while insisting Spellings's letter had nothing to do with it.

According to one source with knowledge of the situation, PBS staffers had been prepared to stand behind the episode and were taken by surprise when Mitchell "pulled the rug out from under them."

Sloan told The TV Column yesterday that the reason she told the Globe that Mitchell was satisfied with the content was because Mitchell "was personally comfortable with the episode."

But that weekend, after conversations with a number of PBS stations and "national leadership," Sloan said, Mitchell changed her mind.

The PBS stations, according to Sloan, had asked Mitchell to "please don't put us in the position in which you feed the show to them and then they have to make the call in their communities" whether to air it.

Boston station WGBH, which produces "Postcards From Buster," went ahead and aired the episode this month and has offered it to any PBS station that wants it. According to a station representative, about 85 percent of the mail WGBH received on the airing was positive. The rep forwarded one letter to The TV Column, which she said was from a Marine in Iraq thanking the station for providing copies of the episode to other PBS stations. "I don't fight for white, conservative, middle class, heterosexual Americans," the letter said. " . . . I fight so that all can enjoy our inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."