The conflict between NPR and the Traditional Values Coalition is on the agenda of the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing today at 10 on Capitol Hill. [Current report on the affair.] It’s unlikely the committee will avoid the topic with both Andrea Lafferty of the conservative group and NPR President Kevin Klose as witnesses. Also up: the heads of CPB, PBS, APTS, WNYC and cable exec Michael Willner of Insight Communications, who has in the past objected to extensive DTV carriage demands by broadcasters.

Ken Burns brags the sound will be so good on the forthcoming digitally remastered version of The Civil War that “when you see Pickett’s Charge, it will rearrange your molecules,” he told Gail Shister of the Philadelphia Inquirer. His next bio topics: Horatio Nelson Jackson, who won a bet in 1903 by driving coast to coast in less than 90 days (voice by Tom Hanks) and boxing champ Jack Johnson (voice by Samuel Jackson).

The secretary of Pacifica‘s board has asked the network to renegotiate its freshly-inked contract with the show Democracy Now!. Carol Spooner alleges that the contract, which establishes Democracy Now! as a self-owned production company independent from Pacifica, was signed prematurely and could hurt the network financially.

Nearly half of PBS’s member station broadcast Louis Rukeyser’s new CNBC series, but public TV officials reject suggestions that these stations are rebelling against changes to his long-running PBS show, Wall Street Week. Rukeyser is still angry about his abrupt departure from the PBS series.

Teens take control on 2K Nation, a new show on the Washington, D.C. Pacifica affiliate WPFW.

Fordham University’s WFUV-FM and its opponents across the street at the New York Botanical Garden have been quietly pursuing an alternative site for the station’s tower, even while their defenders sparred publicly in FCC forums June 27. After eight years of legal struggles with the botanical garden, WFUV hangs its antenna from a tower that, despite being cut short by halted construction, offends the garden’s management. Both sides are encouraged by progress of negotiations for the alternative site. Garden spokesman Karl Lauby says only that the site is “up north” and WFUV General Manager Ralph Jennings won’t discuss its location at all.

A New York Times critic says the PBS four-parter series Great Projects, starting tonight, will impress viewers with the foresight of big-thinking civil engineers and the politicians that back them but nevertheless fails to persuade that Michael Dukakis was a swashbuckling hero.

Katie Davis, formerly of NPR, appears today in a Washington Post column, talking about the Washington, D.C. park where she spends a lot of time. Settling with NPR yielded “her retirement fund,” she says.

NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin summarizes the flap over the network’s linking policies in his latest “Media Matters” column.

On a second try, BBC is seen likely to win regulatory approval for BBC3, a new British TV channel for ages 25-34, says the Guardian in London.

Cory Doctorow, NPR’s principal critic during this whole linking debacle, still finds plenty to dislike about NPR’s revised policy. The latest article in Wired also includes some of his comments.

WFUV’s folkie listeners and the New York Botanical Garden’s orchid-lovers conflicted politely at yesterday’s FCC hearing in the Bronx, giving the New York Times lots of material for cultural stereotyping. The issue: WFUV’s half-built tower, which the Garden says ruins the skyline. Herewith: WFUV’s side and the Garden’s side. Nothing about the tower has been easy: its federal subsidy was held up by First Amendment issues.

Responding to widespread criticism (see posts below), NPR revised its linking policy today. You no longer need to request permission to link to its site. But NPR still seeks to bar framing of its pages, and says it reserves the right to withdraw permission for any link.

Charlie Rose had open-heart surgery June 25 to repair a faulty valve, reports USA Today. The talk-show host could be back to work within a week, says his exec producer (second item).

With CPB money, WNET launches African American World, a website about the AfAm experience that isn’t an adjunct of any particular TV show. The site is planned so that other stations can integrate it into their websites.