Fan of the red carpet? You’ll enjoy PBS’s photos from the Kennedy Center of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, awarded Sunday evening (Oct. 23) to comedian Will Farrell. Big-name stars attending included actors Paul Rudd, Ed Asner, Conan O’Brien, Adam Sandburg and Molly Shannon, as well as PBS NewsHour’s Gwen Ifill. PBS members stations will air the show Oct. 31.

The Independent Television Service has chosen eight international documentary projects from its 2011 call for the Global Perspective Project. This year’s selections “provide extraordinary access and insight into the daily lives and struggles of people who live in Uruguay, Iran, China, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Myanmar and India,” the CPB-backed ITVS said in a statement. Docs were selected from 476 submissions from 118 countries representing 72 languages. All eight are bound for the PBS series Independent Lens, P.O.V., and the international series Global Voices on the World channel. The 2012 ITVS International Call opens Nov. 1; deadline is Dec. 9.

The six-hour, live streaming news coverage by Democracy Now! of Georgia inmate Troy Davis’s execution on Sept. 21 was viewed more than 800,000 times online, reports the New York Times in a profile of the show, which is celebrating its 15th year. The popularity of that reporting attests to “the hunger for this kind of information,” host Amy Goodman told the newspaper. “Yet there was no network that was there to cover this moment throughout the night.” Some fans as well as critics describe the show as progressive, the Times notes, but Goodman rejects that label and instead says it’s a newscast that has “people speaking for themselves.”

NPR’s Michele Norris is leaving her co-hosting duties for All Things Considered until after the 2012 elections, due to husband Broderick Johnson’s new position with President Obama’s re-election campaign. “Given the nature of Broderick’s position with the campaign and the impact that it will most certainly have on our family life,” Norris said in a note to colleagues this morning (Oct. 24), “I will temporarily step away from my hosting duties until after the 2012 elections.” NPR hasn’t decided who will substitute for her. Norris said she will produce signature segments and features and working on new reporting projects. “While I will of course recuse myself from all election coverage, there’s still an awful lot of ground that I can till in this interim role,” she added.

Toy giant Mattel is buying HIT Entertainment, part owner with PBS and Sesame Workshop of the Kids Sprout children’s educational cable channel, for $680 million, according to the Hollywood Reporter. With more than $180 million in annual revenue, HIT is one of the largest independent owners of intellectual property for preschoolers, holding titles including Thomas & Friends, Barney, Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam and Angelina Ballerina. Sprout launched initially as a video on demand service on April 1, 2005, and became a cable and satellite channel in September 2005 (background, Current, Nov. 1, 2004).

Where is New York City Pacifica Radio WBAI’s live coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement? That’s what blogger Matthew Lasar is pondering after receiving this note from former WBAI programmer Doug Henwood: “I’m stunned. [The station is] right on Wall Street. They could walk out the door and ask the denizens of Brown Bros Harriman and Deutsche Bank what they make of it. And then walk five minutes down the street to Zuccotti Park and cover breaking news and all kinds of stuff. It could attract a worldwide listenership.” Lasar attempted to contact various WBAI execs, and heard back from Mitchel Cohen, chairperson of WBAI’s Local Station Board.

Lisa Frazier, c.e.o. of The Bay Citizen nonprofit news website, has announced that she is leaving for personal reasons. This follows Bay Citizen Editor Jonathan Weber’s departure in September to join Reuters. Frazier has led the news organization since its founding. Her appointment in January 2010 “raised eyebrows,” the San Francisco Business Times noted, “both for her lack of direct media experience and her salary of $400,000.”

NPR is dropping distribution of World of Opera as of Nov. 11. The new distributor will be WDAV Classical Public Radio in Charlotte, N.C., and licensed to Davidson College. Lisa Simeone will continue as the show’s host, the licensee said. Simeone, a freelance radio broadcaster, was fired Oct. 19 from Soundprint, the independently produced long-form doc series, for violating NPR’s ethics code due to her role as spokesperson for “October 2011,” an anti-war group aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Dana Davis Rehm, NPR’s s.v.p. for communications, said the change in distribution was made due to NPR and WDAV’s “different views about the role of a program host.”

After 40 years, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network is ending its MPBN Great TV Auction, reports the Maine Sunday Telegram. Lou Morin, director of marketing and public relations for MPBN, said the auction usually brought in about $450,000 in gross revenue, but after expenses the net revenue was only about $150,000. The auction usually took place over 10 days in April, pre-empting the network’s regular nightly schedule — which became a factor in the decision to end it. “People want their normal programming interrupted as little as possible,” Morin said.

A new Knight Foundation report provides details on locally focused nonprofit news websites and their progress in engaging web audiences, building revenues and cultivating donors. “Getting Local” profiles seven news start-ups and draws conclusions about what it will take for them to become financially self-sustainable. Nonprofit news ventures must “aspire well beyond producing high-quality journalistic content,” write co-authors Mayur Patel and Michele McLellan. “Entrepreneurial revenue development, audience focus and a mission of engagement, and technology to support that mission are essential components of a sustainable nonprofit news venture.” Poynter columnist Rick Edmonds summarized highlights of the report in this Oct.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Couldn’t attend the NETA conference this week? Here’s a handy recap in video, photos and reports.

Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s “Super Thursday” one-day pledge drive raised $252,719 from 2,866 donors today (Oct. 20), more than doubling its previous daily record of $107,558 in April. Its goal was met in less than 12 hours of on-air appeals, which was “totally unexpected,” said Jennifer Foley, MPBN’s director of development and philanthropic giving, in a press release. One man walked into MPBN’s studio in Lewiston and donated a jar of loose change, which totaled $45.59. Foley said MPBN had heavily promoted the pledge drive for the past two weeks, with pre-recorded messages written for MPBN’s audience by a dozen NPR radio personalities, including Carl Kassel and Peter Sagal from Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — First-time NETA Award winner KRSC/RSU-Television in Claremore, Okla., was also a double winner for its Will Rogers & American Politics, claiming both the biography and history honors in the content production category. The National Educational Telecommunications Association also pays tribute to the best of promotion, community engagement and instructional media with the annual awards, presented today (Oct. 20) at its national conference here. Another double winner was Mountain Lake PBS in Plattsburgh, N.Y., also in content production, for Cirque du Soleil: Flowers in the Desert (performance) and The Boobie Sisters (news and public affairs). The NETA Education Center presented its Enterprise and Innovation Award to WKYU in Bowling Green, Ky.

Public radio is once again struggling to define the line between on-air talent who report as ethically bound journalists and those personalities who are permitted to express opinions. Freelance radio broadcaster Lisa Simeone, a veteran host of public radio documentary and music programs, was fired late Oct. 19 from Soundprint, the independently produced long-form doc series, for violating NPR’s ethics code. Her role as spokesperson for “October 2011,” an anti-war group aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement that has staged protests in Washington, D.C., put her longtime affiliation with public radio in jeopardy. The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call first questioned whether Simeone’s activism violated journalistic ethics in an Oct.

PBS today announced two online initiatives, one a new website, another an expanded content agreement with Amazon.com. It’s launch day for PBS Food, a gateway to some 150 pubTV food and cooking programs and more than 1,700 searchable recipes from local station and national archives. The site features classic episodes of shows such as Baking With Julia, and Victory Garden, and an appearance from a very young Emeril Lagasse. And PBS Distribution has broadened its licensing agreement with Amazon.com, which will allow Amazon Prime members to instantly stream current and archived PBS programming. “Expanding the reach of our content by making it accessible through digital platforms is a key priority for PBS,” Jason Seiken, s.v.p.,