Quick Takes

“Frontline” re-cuts segment with official after complaint from Interior Department

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Frontline has re-cut a broadcast interview with an administration official in which one of his responses was used to answer a different question. Every reporter and editor knows that shouldn’t be done, writes PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler. “That’s just fundamental journalistic ethics,” he notes.Both the broadcast and transcript versions of Frontline’s interview with Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, David J. Hayes are online in the latest Ombudsman Column. After the show on the BP oil disaster, The Spill, ran on Oct. 26, Matt Lee-Ashley, communications director at Interior, complained to Frontline.

Quick Takes

Production ending this season for “The Desert Speaks”

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Arizona Public Media’s The Desert Speaks, winner of 24 regional and national Emmys and distributed nationwide by American Public Television, is ending production. Tom Kleespie has produced the show since it began in 1989. “We’ve had a great run with the series, which has lasted longer than most national television series that started around the same time with the exception of The Simpsons,” Kleespie told the Arizona Daily Star. The final episode airs in May; reruns will continue for at least four years.

Quick Takes

KCET hires editor-in-chief to head up new community blogging operation

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KCET is developing a community-based content and blogging operation, and has created a new position to oversee the work, it announced today. Zach Behrens is the new editor-in-chief and will report directly to Mary Mazur, KCET’s chief content officer. For the past three years, Behrens has been editor-in-chief of LAist/Gothamist, where he oversaw operations (here’s his farewell column) and was the lead writer for LAist.com. Behrens also has served as a communications and marketing consultant to MTV, Nike and the City of Santa Clarita. He begins work on Nov.

Quick Takes

NBR plans weekly segment on business of sports

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Nightly Business Report today (Nov. 4) announced a new weekly feature, “Beyond the $coreboard,” that “gives viewers in-depth analysis of the biggest sports stories of the day and what they mean for Wall Street.” NBR is partnering with Rick Horrow, author of “Beyond the Box Score: An Insider’s Guide to the $750 Billion Business of Sports” and is a visiting expert on sports law at Harvard Law School. His Miama-based Horrow Sports Ventures is a facility development advisor to teams, leagues, universities, government agencies, and nonprofits. Horrow has been a contributor to NBR since the 1980s, the announcement said.CLARIFICATION: A spokeswoman for Harvard Law School said Horrow last participated in the Sports Law program at the university in 2006, and is not currently active there.

Quick Takes

After a busy election night, PBS NewsHour is reviewing web activity

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Just as some election officials continue to count midterm ballots from Tuesday’s (Nov. 2) vote, PBS NewsHour is tallying up web visitors for its ambitious all-evening coverage. Anne Bell, spokesperson for the show, said dozens of sites (that they know of) either embedded or linked to the show’s live stream — everything from the Small Dead Animals blog to the leftie Huffington Post, the conservative Breitbart.tv, the Black Sistas, Latino Perspectives, LA Observed and Eastern Iowa Government. Sixteen pubstations also participated.The site page featured live coverage with anchor Jim Lehrer and correspondents. On the right side of the screen, visitors saw Twitters with the show’s hashtag.

Quick Takes

V-me to carry World Series of Boxing competitions

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V-me, the 24/7 Spanish network that’s a popular multicast channel on public TV stations, had secured broadcast rights to the World Series of Boxing, (WSB) it said in a statement today (Nov. 3). Coverage begins Nov. 20 and continues through next season. V-me also creating a WSB news and commentary show, Sexto Round, to run Thursday nights.

Quick Takes

Integrated Media Association webinar Wednesday

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Jeannie Ericson, executive director of the Integrated Media Association, will be online with iMA board members Tim Olson and Milton Clipper for a webinar Wednesday (Nov. 3) co-sponsored by the National Center for Media Engagement. The center says it’s a chance to interact with a “newly revitalized” iMA, and provide input to shape the future of the organization that works on innovation, efficiencies and effectiveness within public media. Register here for the webinar.

Quick Takes

Nevada adds Vegas PBS’s online education program to state-approved list

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Vegas PBS’s Vegas Virtual online education program is now part of the Nevada state-approved training provider list, the station said today (Nov. 2). The effort was launched in response to unemployment issues in the state. It provides online education programs, from high-school GED’s to specific career training; prices vary by course, with most between $100 and $150. The state list was created as part of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which provides framework for states to improve delivery of employment services to communities.

Programs/Content

NPR sets a goal: add 100 reporters to statehouse beats

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A multiyear initiative led by NPR, Impact of Government, eventually will put two additional state-level reporters to work in each of the 50 states, along with a small team of editors and data analysts at the network. Pilot coverage in eight states will begin in March [NPR request for proposals]. The $1.8 million kickoff grant from the Open Society Foundations, founded and chaired by financier George Soros, will cover planning and part of pilot costs, but launching the full project will require $17 million, and sustaining it will cost $18 million a year, according to Ron Schiller, NPR senior v.p. of fundraising and president of the NPR Foundation. The project, developed during strategic planning talks over the past 18 months, is public radio’s first major effort to make a fundraising case for a combined local/national project. NPR will join stations in asking funders to back their aspiration to take up enterprise and long-form reporting on a beat once dominated by daily newspapers — state government and public affairs — that public radio most often covers as daily spot news.

Quick Takes

NCME brings onboard director of television and digital media engagement

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The National Center for Media Engagement has hired Jennifer MacArthur as its director of television and digital media engagement, the NCME said today (Nov. 1) in a statement. MacAurthur will work with pubTV stations, digital media organizations and content producers as they develop ways to engage communities. MacArthur’s Borderline Media led outreach for the Emmy-nominated POV documentary Traces of the Trade, and has consulted on and directed other national campaigns. She also produced StoryCorps Griot, which collects and distributes oral histories of African Americans, and has worked at Link TV, Village Voice Media and Scholastic Entertainment.

Quick Takes

NPR, Frontline receive Online Journalism Awards

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NPR and Frontline scored honors at the Online Journalism Awards Oct. 29 in Washington, D.C. The Gannett Foundation Award for innovative investigative journalism, small site, went to the collaboration among ProPublica, the New Orleans Times-Picayune and Frontline for “Law and Disorder,” a probe into post-Katrina shootings by the police. The Gannett Foundation Award winner for technical innovation in the service of digital journalism was NPR’s API, which provides a way for various computer applications to receive NPR programming (Current, July 21, 2008). And NPR.org won for outstanding use of emerging platforms for its popular mobile apps.

Programs/Content
O'Reilly and Williams on O'Reilly's Fox News program

Under-explained firing makes NPR an issue just in time for election

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Top NPR officials may have thought their Oct. 20 decision to dismiss veteran journalist Juan Williams was about journalistic objectivity, but to many outsiders it sounded more like a story of arrogant lefty political correctness. That narrative opened up public radio — and all of public broadcasting — to a political attack that may help the candidates of Fox News and the Republican Party rally their conservative base for the midterm elections Nov. 2. Criticism of the firing was not limited to the partisan right.

Quick Takes

Public Insight Network partners with three investigative entities

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The Public Insight Network is expanding with new partners ProPublica, the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Center for Public Integrity, it announced Oct. 29. The network, a creation of American Public Media in 2003 to encourage public input in the newsgathering process, announced the new collaborations at the 2010 Online News Association conference in Washington, D.C. The investigative news outlets join a growing number of organizations affiliated with the network, including WNYC in New York, the Miami Herald, Oregon Public Broadcasting and the nonprofit online St. Louis Beacon.

Quick Takes

PBSKids.org hits No. 1 children’s site for videos viewed

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For the first time, PBSKids.org is the top-ranked children’s site for number of videos viewed, according to comScore Video Metrix (September 2010). Viewers spent an average of 47 minutes watching nearly 88 million  free educational videos in September, PBS said in a statement today (Nov. 1). That’s twice the monthly average for other top children’s sites. The PBS Kids preschool and PBS Kids Go!

Quick Takes

Kerger speaks out on KCET negotiations, system reactions

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TVNewsCheck’s Contributing Editor P.J. Bednarski spoke at length with PBS President Paula Kerger last week about KCET’s decision to drop its PBS membership in January (Current, Oct. 18). The transcript was posted Sunday (Oct. 31). Excerpts:— Concerning the negotiations: “I don’t want you to walk away from this discussion with the idea that we took a really hard line.