What good is journalism, anyway? Comments invited …

PBS is helping to collect public comments on the journalism’s iffy future for a blue-ribbon Knight Commission that compares itself to the Carnegie Commission of 40 years ago. The 15-member commission is scheduled to vote on its recommendations in May. A summary of its draft report finds that journalism is “a critical intermediating practice” (and other good things). Since Tuesday, a handful of people have contributed remarks on the pubTV network’s little-known social network, PBS Engage — a comment line that will be open until May 8. The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, funded by the Knight Foundation and run by the Aspen Institute, features a Carnegie-like cast of 15 commissioners, including Co-chairs Theodore Olson, former U.S. solicitor general, and Google exec Marissa Mayer. Ex-officio members are Aspen Chair Walter Isaacson, biographer and former Time editor (he came back for the Feb. 15 cover story “How to Save Your Newspaper”), and Alberto Ibarguen, Knight chair and former PBS chair. It’s a bipartisan crew, with a matched pair of former FCC chairs, Reed Hundt (D) and Michael Powell (R). The commission has held several hearings around the country since it began work last June and is scheduled to vote on recommendations May 13.