Current (https://current.org/2009/11/)
Harvard University history prof Niall C. Ferguson has won an International Emmy Award for his documentary series, The Ascent of Money, which aired on PBS in July 2009, reports the Harvard Crimson. The series examined the history of money, credit and banking, going back as far as ancient Babylon. It was based on his course, “International Financial History, 1700 to Present,” which he last taught at the college in 2007.
PBS and the NewsHour today announced a partnership with Boston-based GlobalPost to make use of its international correspondents for “timely on-the-ground information about breaking news developments” for both broadcast and online audiences, according to a statement posted on Jim Romenesko’s media blog on the Poynter Institute’s website. The effort will supplement the NewsHour’s current international reporting, the statement noted. GlobalPost correspondents and videographers will produce weekly video segments for NewsHour and the show’s web site; GlobalPost and NewsHour staffs will collaborate on story selection and production. GlobalPost has some 70 reporters in more than 50 countries, and already is partnered with WorldFocus as well as many print publications. As Broadcasting & Cable notes, the syndication deals are “significant” to supporting its work.
Ruth Reichl, host of PBS’s Gourmet’s Adventures With Ruth, opens her refrigerator and pantry to Salon.com for a peek at what one of America’s most respected foodies noshes on. A few goodies: Arkansas black and Knobbed Russet apples, three kinds of butter, frozen banana leaves, strawberry elderflower jam, lacinato kale and “gallons of turkey stock.” You know, the usual.
WGBH will broadcast some television programming on the radio starting Tuesday, the Boston Globe reports. It’s part of the station’s move to transform 89.7-FM into a viable competitor for news powerhouse WBUR’s 90.9-FM. The station will use existing shows such as the NewsHour and local Beat the Press, as well as create a new midday weekday public affairs show. The moves are part of WGBH’s purchase in September of classical music station WCRB-FM 99.5 for $14 million, which allowed WGBH to shift classical programming and convert 89.7 to an all news and talk station.
Kids can now journal on their iPhones thanks to a new app, Make a Journal, from the ever-creative Mister Rogers folks. The $1.99 app, available via iTunes, is a “delight,” according to the iPhone Footprint blog. Kids get five topic suggestions: School, Mad Feelings, Playtime, Pretending, and Books. They can save their personalized journals in a digital library and use virtual crayons and designs to draw a cover for each journal to make it easy to find later.
On Tuesday night, Sherri Westin, e.v.p. of Sesame Workshop, hit the O’Reilly Factor with host Bill O’Reilly on Fox to discuss the ongoing “Pox News” controversy. Appearing with her: Spill O’Reilly, an in-your-face, over-the-top, book-hawking Muppet. Check out the video.
Several pubcasters are part of the 200 largest charities in America in Forbes magazine’s annual list. Figures are for end of fiscal 2008, comparisons are with end of fiscal ’07. Calculations include charitable commitment, fundraising efficiency and donor dependency. PBS scores quite high in fundraising efficiency; it’s seventh on the list. Its $356 million in assets, however, is down 7 percent.
Ladies and gentlemen: The Muppets perform “Bohemian Rhapsody.” (And doesn’t the green dude at 3:47 look like … Brian Williams?)
Good news for Peconic Public Broadcasting, new owners of WLIU in Southampton, N.Y.: Listeners contributed a record total of more than $90,000 during its on-air fund drive Nov. 19-22. Nearly 700 supporters pledged almost three times the highest amount raised when the station was under Long Island University, according to Hamptons.com. “From Saturday afternoon, when we had received more than $50,000, we knew this was going to be a different fund drive,” said General Manager Wally Smith.