Author: Steve Behrens
Michael Nesmith wins $47 million in video suit against PBS
Almost five years after PBS sued its former home-video distributor, the legal action boomeranged last week, hitting the network with a $46.8 million ...Gore panel endorses adding educational DTV channels
An extra digital TV channel should be reserved in every community for noncommercial educational purposes, the Gore Commission recommended last week in its ...More, deeper, broader: where ‘enhanced’ DTV goes
If you were among a certain handful of people watching the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick bio Frank Lloyd Wright Nov. 10–11, you could get a ...HDTV debut: full-blown spectacle
Even on crappy old analog TV — the way nearly all of its audience will see it Nov. 9 — PBS’s premiere ...Cooking star pays plaintiffs in sexual abuse suits
In most sexual abuse cases, it’s one person’s word against another’s. In the Frugal Gourmet’s case, it was his word against 20 ...High court upholds authority of Arkansas network in debate case
The broadcast decision that embroiled Arkansas ETV in a landmark First Amendment struggle ever since 1992 was “a reasonable, viewpoint-neutral exercise of ...Merger: we’re not talking now, but we might be talking later
It may be a simple question–are PRI and NPR talking about a merger?–but that doesn’t mean it gets a simple answer. To ...We’ll look back on this old Barney: an early input-output gizmo you could hug
Dolls have talked for years, but it was Microsoft’s ActiMates Interactive Barney that became a full-fledged peripheral for the computer–with hints of ...‘Great Performances’ team brought stage virtuosos into the videoscape
Twenty-five years ago this week, public TV first aired Great Performances, its major performing arts showcase. And just in time for the anniversary, CPB ...How reform can minimize politics in presidential appointments
This analysis by the editor and co-founder of Current describes methods used elsewhere to reduce the influence of political favor in naming boards. If ...FCC gives public TV 6 years to go digital
The year 2003 doesn’t seem so far off when you’ve got plenty to do in the meantime. Between now and then, public TV ...‘In the Life’: Everywhere their cameras go, they seem to find gay people
'In the Life' is approaching its fifth anniversary on public TV, aired on more than 90 transmitters and rejected for twice as ...Clinton budget backs appropriations for CPB and endowments but would terminate equipment grant program
The White House requests a 30% increase in CPB's appropriation in fiscal 2000 while proposing to zero out PTFP.Having ‘done the job,’ Carlson will depart CPB
Richard Carlson, a Republican credited with defending public broadcasting from attacks by members of his party, announced Jan. 24 that he will ...Set-aside of DBS capacity for noncommercial use upheld by appeals court
A federal appeals court has upheld the little-noticed 1992 law setting aside 4–7 percent of direct broadcast satellite capacity for “noncommercial programming ...
Current is an editorially independent, nonprofit service of the American University School of Communication. We're funded by your subscriptions, your donations, advertising, and a generous grant from the Wyncote Foundation.