A portion of a lawsuit brought by WNET, PBS and several other broadcasters against online television startup Aereo has been dismissed, reports Reuters. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan turned down a claim of unfair competition but left intact a copyright infringement argument. Aereo, backed by billionaire media magnate Barry Diller, launched in New York City in March, charging subscribers $12 a month to stream over-the-air content to cellphones, tablet computers and other devices. Broadcasters filed the lawsuit that month.

A Knight Foundation-backed magazine, in print and digital versions, is part of the Voice of San Diego’s new membership program. Seem backwards? After all, Voice of San Diego is a web-based nonprofit news organization. However, said Scott Lewis, c.e.o., said on the Knight website, “We put several stories out every day. Some longer and more in-depth than others. When we gather them all up over the course of a month, we have reason to be proud. At the same time, not everyone can keep up with the daily chaos of news, let alone read some of our longer pieces.” Lewis heard about MagCloud, a self-service publishing platform, and pitched the idea to Knight.

Today, Frontline and nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica released their long-awaited collaboration on the issue of poor accountability and safety among cellphone carriers and the subcontractors they hire to maintain and build the nation’s over 280,000 cell tower sites. The investigation found that 50 cell tower climbers have died between 2003 and 2011. The ProPublica article details how lackluster safety regulations, the overbearing push for cell tower expansion, and a culture of recklessness have caused this boom in accidental fatalities. In addition, the investigation found that many cell phone carriers deliberately hide behind layers of subcontractors, thereby recusing themselves from most liability and preventing easy linkage between cell carriers and the deaths.

June 27 is the endowment’s deadline for receiving proposals for the project, Bridging Cultures through Film: International Topics. The endowment expects to award five grants, including development grants of up to $75,000 each and production grants of up to $800,000 each. Resulting nonfiction programs, ranging from a broadcast hour to feature-length, will take an international look at ethical, religious, historical and other issues, biographies and histories. Nonprofits, governments and private or public institutions of higher education are eligible. Info: tinyurl.com/NEH-bridging. Contact: NEH Division of Public Programs, 202-606-8269 or publicpgms@neh.gov.

Public Radio International has received a two-year, $1.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support reporting on health and development on its program PRI’s The World. The funds will help PRI “further extend the reach and impact of coverage around critical issues affecting the world’s poorest nations, such as maternal health and infant mortality; water, sanitation and hygiene; vaccines and immunization; infectious and chronic diseases; and food security and nutrition,” the producer said in a press release. The release also alludes to PRI’s development of “an ambitious strategic framework” to step up engagement on digital platforms around The World’s reporting.

The Public Radio Program Directors Association is asking public radio programmers for help in developing a “Programmers Manifesto,” a collaborative project that will build on and update the organization’s work on defining public radio’s “Core Values” for today’s media environment. In a blog post, PRPD says the project is inspired by The Cluetrain Manifesto, a landmark 1999 work about the Web’s disruptive effect on traditional business models and practices. PRPD members are asked to “document and share their beliefs and aspirations for serving significant audiences on line, on the air, during fundraising, and in their communities.” The process, which will unfold over the next few months, will result in “a modern vision of public service,” says Arthur Cohen, president of PRPD.

Tomorrow the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., will host “From Broadcast to Broadband: New Theories of the Public Interest in Wireless.” In two panel discussions, running from 9:30 a.m to noon Eastern time, communications wonks will discuss the role of the public interest in broadband and wireless technologies. Panelists will include Joaquin Alvarado, formerly the senior v.p. for digital innovation at American Public Media, and Andy Schwartzman, senior v.p. and policy director for the Media Access Project. New America will provide a live web stream on the event’s web page and an archived video after the panel concludes.

The Ford Foundation, a longtime supporter of public broadcasting, has given a grant of $1 million to the Los Angeles Times, which will expand its coverage of beats including immigration and ethnic communities in Southern California, the southwest U.S. border and Brazil. A Ford Foundation spokesman told the newspaper that as media organizations face challenges funding reporting through traditional means, “we and many other funders are experimenting with new approaches to preserve and advance high-quality journalism.” In a column on the announcement, Adam Clayton Powell, senior fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy notes that Ford used to give NPR “six and seven-figure grants each year for international news coverage and reporting of certain topics.”

ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom, has established a Facebook page for people affected by errors, injuries or infection while undergoing medical treatment. The page is moderated by ProPublica reporters Marshall Allen, who has covered the topic since 2006 and won a Goldsmith Award at the Las Vegas Sun for his series “Do No Harm: Hospital Care in Las Vegas,” and Olga Pierce, who covers health policy, insurance issues and data journalism. ProPublica’s plans for the online community include Q&A’s with experts and links to the latest reports, research and policy proposals.

Public broadcasting “suffers the main downside of public funding — political influence and control — yet enjoys little of the upside — a significant taxpayer contribution that would relieve it of the need to seek corporate underwriting and listener donations,” writes Trevor Burrus, a legal associate at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies, in his policy analysis released today (May 21) titled, “If You Love Something Set It Free: A Case for Defunding Public Broadcasting.” Burrus writes that PBS and NPR “produce some excellent programming.” However, he believes a government-funded institution should be necessary, prudent, and, most important, “authorized by our Constitution.

Third Draft Recommendations of Core Working Group, October 1997 In the process of founding the Forum, this was the Core Working Group’s final draft, released Oct. 14, 1997, before the Convention of Stations, Nov. 5, where the Forum was voted into existence. Our Goal Our goal is to change the way station CEOs communicate, think and interact with one another on issues and opportunities that affect all licensees. Thus, our intent is to create a framework and process that enables public television senior executives to discuss and address critical opportunities and issues — and make collective decisions when necessary. Major Revisions Based on feedback from the Circle of Advisors, here are the major changes from the Sept.

Second Draft Recommendations of Core Working Group, September 1997 In the process of creating the Forum, public TV’s Core Working Group circulated this draft to its Circle of Advisors on Sept. 5, 1997. After revisions, the group circulated a third draft, Oct. 13. To the Circle of Advisors: We thank you for your thoughtful and timely feedback to our August 4th draft proposal and survey. Based on that feedback, the Core Working Group has modified its recommendations for Countdown ’97. The overall goals are: to create a new process to enable public television to discuss and address critical opportunities and issues — and make collective decisions when necessary; to create a new organizational structure for public television to serve its needs more effectively and efficiently.

Phase II: The Search for Paradigms Five months before public TV stations voted the Forum into being, this paper was prepared by their facilitators, the consulting firm BMR Associates. Released June 17, 1997. I. Introduction During Phase II of Countdown ’97, BMR Associates studied approximately 20 different organizations. The goal of the research was to discover whether other organizations  — similar in structure to public television — had established frameworks and processes that enabled them to make decisions and work together in a coordinated manner. In identifying organizations to explore, BMR focused on organizations that met the following criteria: The organization consisted of autonomous units, locally owned and operated.

Phase I: Overview of Conclusions and Their Implications Early in the year-long process of founding the Forum, the facilitating consultants, BMR Associates, prepared this summary of findings, released in October 1996. The goal of Phase I was to lay the foundation for Countdown ’97” as described in our project proposal. Phase I consisted of 49 interviews with public broadcasting industry leaders and managers, plus two facilitated workshops and two focus groups. As defined in the RFP, the project included all of public broadcasting. However, midway through Phase I we determined that we should focus our efforts on public television because public radio did not exhibit the same level of need for changes in governance and organization.

Speaking at The Media Institute today, Patrick Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, reiterated his opposition to defunding public media at the federal level, recently pushed in letters by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and Sen. James DeMint (R-S.C.). Butler also reached out to commercial media executives, and suggested ways public broadcasters could consolidate without sacrificing the quality of their product, according to John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable. The Media Institute is a nonprofit First Amendment think tank (based near Washington, D.C. in Arlington, Va.) supported by major media companies, foundations, associations and individuals. Many commercial media execs were in attendance for Butler’s speech, Eggerton said.