In anticipation of PBS’s appearance this week at the annual Television Critics Association Press Tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., The Associated Press distributed a July 29 story looking at PBS Chief Programmer Beth Hoppe’s ongoing work to cast it as network instead of a public service.
As writer David Bauder notes, “There’s a difference between waiting to see what work producers will offer you and actively going out with some of your own ideas.” Hoppe has done that, as well as “tried to make PBS more topical,” with an examination of guns in America that ran a month after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting; and programs on the Boston Marathon bombing, the meteorite that exploded over Russia in February and the devastation of Superstorm Sandy.
PBS’s presentations at the TCA press tour take place today, Tuesday and Wednesday.