Quick Takes

Does the future hold a digital-age Corporation for Public Media?

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Check out “An open letter to the FCC about a media policy for the digital age,” by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Coll, now president of the New America Foundation, via Columbia Journalism Review. One of Coll’s ideas, for CPB: “I’ve heard suggestions that new funding should be linked to more pluralistic formulas, including a restructuring of CPB to encompass new digital entrants, such as ProPublica, for example, or local sites like the nonprofit Voice of San Diego — a change that might be signaled by renaming the entity as the Corporation for Public Media. That may be ambitious politically, but it is certainly the right strategic direction. Any new funding regime should be measured by whether or not it will produce more serious, independent, diverse, public-minded reporting.””Any new funds routed through a reformed corporation should come with conditions. One should be that that PBS, NPR, and their member stations have incentives to work across digital media, and to embrace local reporting to a much greater degree than they do now (which is not much, overall; only 478 of the 901 stations airing NPR programming have staff of any kind, and only a fraction of those have a local news staff).

Quick Takes

KQED now on Google TV, too

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San Francisco’s KQED is the first pubTV affiliate, as well as first local TV station, to be featured on the new Google TV, the station revealed today (Oct. 29). Google TV allows viewers to use a standard remote-control to search and view Internet programs on television. KQED Interactive worked with Google to create a video portal for viewing KQED content on a large TV screen format, the announcement said. Check it out here.

Quick Takes

KET gets “green” loan for network center updates

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Kentucky Educational Television’s network center in Lexington has received a loan of nearly $2 million from the Green Bank of Kentucky program, according to the Business First website. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear announced Thursday (Oct. 28) that with the low-interest loan, KET will implement energy-efficiency and conservation measures, then the money saved through reductions in energy and utility costs will repay the loan. KET updates will include high-efficiency boilers and a system that will transfer heat generated in the studios and server rooms back into the building, high-efficiency light fixtures, and new water fixtures estimated to reduce annual water usage by about 50,000 gallons.

Quick Takes

Bon AppeTweet!

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Take an evening of local and national food programs, encourage viewers to interact via Twitter and what do you get? Bon AppeTweet. And HoustonPBS’s social media experiment with that awesome name was a huge success Wednesday night (Oct. 7) reports station spokesperson Julie Coan. “We got so many Tweets that it crashed the software we set up to count them,” she told Current.Food programs are very popular on Channel 8, and lots of local “foodies” use Twitter to share local restaurant info, so the combo was a natural.

Quick Takes

Pubstation, Miami Herald partner to request poems about LeBron James. Really.

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Southern Florida dual-licensee WLRN and the Miami Herald are going where no media has gone before: They’re sponsoring a LeBron James poetry contest. Yes, LeBron James as in the basketball superstar who broke the collective heart of Cleveland when he decamped for the Miami Heat. They’re asking for six lines or fewer, “with six being the number on James’s new uniform,” reports the New Yorker in its current edition. A “mystery celebrity” will select the winner and is expected to read his or her poem on the air before the Nov. 2 game. As of late last week, the mag reports, they’d received several hundred entries, including a few “hate poems” from Cleveland.

Quick Takes

WQED announces new CFO

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WQED in Pittsburgh has named a member of its Board of Directors as vice president and chief financial officer, effective Nov. 3, the station said in an announcement today (Oct. 27). Carol Bailey will be responsible for all of WQED’s finances. Her work on the board includes serving on the finance, business and operations committee since 2008.

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Nature scores first-ever American top award from Wildscreen Festival

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Here’s a unique award for an icon series. Nature has won the prestigious Christopher Parsons Outstanding Achievement Award presented at the 2010 Wildscreen Festival earlier this month in Bristol, U.K. It’s the first American production to be so honored in the festival’s 28-year history. It’s the top prize in the awards, dubbed the Green Oscars for their equivalent of the Academy Awards. The Parsons honor goes to “an organization or individual that has made a globally significant contribution to wildlife filmmaking, conservation and/or the public’s understanding of the environment.” It’s named for the late Christopher Parsons, Wildscreen’s founder, head of the BBC Natural History Unit and executive producer of Life on Earth. Previous Parsons award winners include Sir David Attenborough.

Quick Takes

Pledge now, or it’s Scott Simon in a traffic ‘copter

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Actor Alec Baldwin is helping out public radio this pledge season with his own, um, “promos.” Titles on the spots include “Ira Glass has been reassigned to a Spanish Pop station” and “Don’t give.” Baldwin also suggests moving Scott Simon to the traffic beat, “and keeping him there — until you give.” Or how about putting Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg on sports? Baldwin explains various giving levels, including the “Hollywood Level, where Kai Ryssdal does your yardwork.”

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Upcoming Virginia budget may zero out public radio, governor says

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Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said Tuesday (Oct. 26) his next state budget might eliminate support for public radio in the state, according to Bloomberg Business Week. McDonnell is drafting amendments to the final year of the current two-year budget. McDonnell noted that the possibility of funding cuts had nothing to do with the recent controversy over NPR’s firing of correspondent Juan Williams. “It’s the principle of the thing: Do we need to subsidize a radio station when the free market is working very well?” McDonnell said.

Quick Takes

APTS, NPR, PBS join in petition asking FCC to extend CAP regulation deadline

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Forty-six broadcast and cable associations, including APTS, NPR and PBS, petitioned the FCC last week (Oct. 21) to extend the deadline to comply with new regulations for the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)-formatted Emergency Alert System (EAS) alerts by an additional 180 days, Broadcast Engineering is reporting. On Sept. 30, the Federal Emergency Management Agency published technical standards for CAP-formatted EAS alerts to be used for the Integrated Public Alert Warning System. That triggered a six-month clock — deadline March 29, 2011 — for stations to buy, install and test CAP-compliant equipment.

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NPR headquarters gets bomb threat in the mail

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The Washington Post is reporting that NPR headquarters today (Oct. 26) received a bomb threat in the mail. NPR sources told the paper that the letter was turned over to local police and the FBI. NPR did not publicly disclose details of the threat on the advice of law enforcement, the paper said. The letter didn’t specifically reference the controversial firing of correspondent Juan Williams on Oct.

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Activist alleges assault outside pubTV studio before election debate

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Police are investigating an alleged assault outside the studios of Kentucky Educational Television in Lexington before a Congressional election debate Monday night (Oct. 25), reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. The incident occurred as Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul arrived at the KET studio to debate Attorney General Jack Conway, his Democratic opponent. Police say a Paul volunteer, Tim Proffitt, is being served with a criminal summons after he was seen on video stepping on Lauren Lizabeth Valle’s head. Valle, an activist with the progressive group MoveOn.org, was trying to give Paul a fake award portraying him as a tool of big business.

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Ombudsman tries to convince readers that PBS is not NPR

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In today’s (Oct. 26) column, PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler attempts to remind folks that “PBS is not NPR, that Juan Williams does not work for PBS, that PBS did not fire him, and that both organizations, while part of public broadcasting in this country, are separate organizations and separate public media entities.” Yes, in the wake of Williams’ termination from pubradio, Getler received “several hundred” calls and e-mails to him, thinking PBS was NPR. Or vice-versa.

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Foundation provides KCET with $1 million for its transition to independence

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KCET in Los Angeles, which is dropping PBS membership as of Jan. 1, 2011 (Current, Oct. 18), has received a $1 million grant from the Ahmanson Foundation “for the purpose of converting KCET to an independent public television station,” KCET announced today (Oct. 26). In the statement, KCET President Al Jerome said the foundation has provided grants for all three seasons of SoCal Connected and also has been a longtime local underwriter for Nova.

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Knight Foundation receives $2 million from Google

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Google has donated $2 million to the Knight Foundation to continue its media innovation work, the foundation announced today (Oct. 26). “Journalism is fundamental to a functioning democracy, and we want to do our part to help fulfill the promise of journalism in the digital age,” said Nikesh Arora, Google’s president, global sales operations and business development. During the last five years, Knight Foundation has invested more than $100 million in national media policy, technology innovation, public media work and the evolution of the Web. Several public broadcasters have been awarded grants through its Knight News Challenge, its far-reaching media innovation contest.

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“This is Shock and Claw”: newslink round-up of Williams dismissal

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A parody of NPR’s firing of Juan Williams led last night’s edition of The Daily Show, and Williams appeared on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show this morning. [Scroll down to second segment.] Links to other recent coverage: a Fox News producer confronts NPR President Vivian Schiller in a field segment for O’Reilly Factor; New York University J-School Professor Jay Rosen questions NPR’s stated objective of preserving journalistic standards of objectivity on WBUR’s On Point; and, on last weekend’s edition of On The Media, Slate’s William Saletan describes how Williams’ selectively edited remarks went viral as a selectively edited video blog post by ThinkProgress. Saletan drew parallels between Williams’ firing and the right-wing’s attack on Shirley Sherrod, the U.S. Agriculture Department employee who was fired, and later reinstated, for public remarks that were taken out of context and circulated on the blogosphere.

Quick Takes

Fallout continues over Juan Williams’ firing from NPR

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More than 45,000 persons have joined Free Press’s drive to send letters to Congress “defending public broadcasting and standing up to extremists” who want to de-fund NPR and PBS in the wake of the firing of longtime NPR commentator Juan Williams for his comments on Muslims.

The Association for Public Television Stations also issued a statement Monday (Oct. 25) countering calls to end the funding. “There is widespread understanding that public television exists to provide what the market does not,” said Interim President Lonna Thompson, “reaching underserved audiences in communities across the nation.” And g.m.’s are weighing in on the controversy. Norm Silverstein, president of WXXI in Rochester, N.Y., wrote on its website: “Whether you agree with the firing or not, once NPR allowed Williams to take on a paid role as a commentator for Fox News, at the same time he was a news analyst for NPR, it was only a matter of time before there was an explosion.”

Quick Takes

Log on Wednesday for Public Media Corps webinar

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The interesting work of the Public Media Corps is the subject of Wednesday’s (Oct. 27) 1 p.m. (Eastern) webinar from the National Center for Media Engagement. Corps members are working in Washington, D.C., neighborhoods to determine community needs for digital media, and encourage use of technology. The webinar will provide stations with a mid-project update and advice on how the Corps’ efforts can inform other community engagement projects. Register here.

Quick Takes

PBS partners up with new Google TV

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PBS is an official Google TV launch partner, reports media business site GigaOM. The service enables users with Google Chrome and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 to watch web content on TV. Many sites, including PBS Kids, are being optimized for television viewing. But Google TV is not without controversy: The Big Three networks are blocking access to their online content. Why?