More on PBS member stations and Tucson memorial coverage

David Brauer, local media reporter for MinnPost, complains in a column today (Jan. 17) that Twin Cities Public Television viewers weren’t given the opportunity to see the Jan. 12 memorial service for the recent Tucson shootings.TPT spokesperson Lorena Duarte said the station was told that commercial networks would cover the entire service – which they didn’t, opting instead to only run President Obama’s remarks. “We also received word from PBS that they would not be providing coverage of the memorial event,” Duarte said. “This changed late in the afternoon, which would have made it very difficult for us to put it on [main channel] TPT 2 (and at that point we still thought the networks would be carrying it).” PBS told Michael Getler, the PBS ombudsman, that “member stations had the option of carrying the Tucson memorial … in its entirety.”