The Wisconsin legislature’s budget committee today (May 25) approved slicing an extra half-million dollars from an agency that helps deliver the broadcasts of Wisconsin Public Radio and Television, the Superior Telegraph is reporting. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau says the two-year cut to the Educational Communications Board is atop the roughly 10 percent reductions to most state agencies. The move passed on a 12-4 party-line vote. Across the country, states lawmakers continue to target pubcasting dollars (Current, April 18).

Outgoing NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard reviews the network’s decision to accept an $1.8 million grant from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations last fall — a judgement call that, in the view of unnamed NPR journalists, put the news organization’s credibility as an impartial, trusted news source at risk. “[A] deep current of concern has run through the newsroom about taking money from someone with a well-known, documented political agenda supporting Democrats and Democratic causes,” Shepard writes. The two-year grant supports a worthy cause — launch of the accountability journalism project Impact of Government — but unwittingly opened NPR up to attacks from right-wing partisans.

All of America (well, nearly) is bracing for Oprah Winfrey’s final talk show today (May 25). But Bill Goodman, host of Kentucky Tonight on Kentucky Educational Television, can say he personally knew her way back when. He was news producer and assignment editor at CBS affiliate WTVF-TV in Nashville when Winfrey, then a 19-year-old college sophomore, anchored its weekend newscast. He tells A.M. New York that even back then, Winfrey was “a perfectionist and she worked very hard. As one of the first African-American women on the air, she knew that a lot of people were watching her. She did not want to fail.”

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that a deal has been reached to keep PBS service in Orlando after affiliate WMFE-TV’s sale to religious broadcaster Daystar is finalized, perhaps as early as July 1. Under a proposed plan, columnist Hal Boedeker writes, the University of Central Florida in Orlando and Brevard Community College (home to PBS affiliate WBCC) in Cocoa will assume responsibility for broadcasting PBS in Orlando. Two UCF panels must agree. The university’s advancement committee votes Thursday morning, and the full Board of Trustees meets Thursday afternoon. “PBS still needs to approve this action, should the UCF Board of Trustees approve it,” Grant Heston, assistant vice president of news and information at UCF, tells the paper.

A new publication calling itself “the world’s first printed magazine dedicated to focus exclusively on the evolving technology area of social media” is launching at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2011, going on this week in New York City. The Social Media Monthly includes articles by the Heritage Foundation’s Rory Cooper and U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa David Huebner exploring the role of social media within the executive branch and diplomatic communications, and the cover interview with Duleepa Wijayawardhana, founder of Empire Avenue, a social media exchange. The premiere issue sports a specially designed cover by artist Yiying Lu, known for her famous drawings of the “Fail Whale” used by Twitter and the “Pale Whale” featuring Conan O’Brien.

Three public media journalists are among the 24 new fellows selected by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Jonathan Blakley, NPR foreign desk producer, will study history, politics and social media in sub-Saharan Africa, and  examine the media environment in the United States leading into the 2012 presidential election. Kristen Lombardi, staff writer at the Center for Public Integrity, will focus on legal and social conditions that promote wrongful convictions, particularly the impact of institutional misconduct and the consequences of systemic resistance to reform. And Jeff Young, senior correspondent with PRI’s Living on Earth, will look at the full costs of energy sources and how new media might convene a more meaningful discussion of energy choices.

Larry Unger, Maryland Public Television’s current chief operating officer, has been named its new president. He’ll take the helm on June 30, when current President Robert Shuman retires after a 15-year tenure. Unger joined the station in 1997. Before coming to pubTV, he spent 11 years as executive vice president and group executive for the Bank of Baltimore. Unger also served for more than five years as an officer of public TV’s Major Market Group, an organization of the industry’s top 30 stations, and was instrumental in MPT’s digital transition. “The elevation of Larry Unger to the No. 1 spot at MPT resulted from an extensive nationwide search over the course of several months,” Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission Chairman Edward Kaplan said in a statement.

“We’re raising good will as well as money,” says Holly Kernan, news director and host at KALW/91.7 FM in San Francisco. Instead of interrupting programming for pledge spots, the station this month conducted a “short-form” campaign of 60- and 90-second spots, many of them humorous, featuring local celebrities, reports the Knight Digital Media Center. So how did it work? The station met its goal of $300,000 and gained 900 new members. Positive comments from listeners too, including: ““Love, love, love the new pledge drive format!”

PBS launched its first PBS Kids line of preschool toys today (May 24), featuring 20 wooden playthings. They’ll be available exclusively on a new retail page, PBSKIDSshop.com, through early fall, and sold through other online and in-store retailers later. The toys include a Sounds of the World Rhythm Set, one of several musical toys; a Puzzle Playset Safari; building and construction toys, such as Exploration Blocks: City (image, PBS); and Three-Layer Puzzles in barn, camping and other themes. In addition to the new toy line, the online shop offers educational books, games, toys, DVDs, customizable apparel and more based on PBS Kids programs.

The StoryCorps listening project is partnering with My Faith My Voice, a platform dedicated to promoting the grassroots voice of Muslims in America, to record stories on July 4 weekend in Chicago. “The partnership will seek to humanize the American Muslim community and reflect the growing diversity of our country’s national landscape,” a statement said. “Storytelling is a powerful way to break down barriers and strengthen connections between people,” Haaris Ahmad, an MFMV Board Member, said in the statement. “It’s time for the Muslim community to add its stories to the rich diversity and tradition of the rest of the American family.”

Current’s coverage of PBS’s announcement that it will begin an experiment this fall to insert local and national promo breaks into two shows has prompted a pro/con survey at Huffington Post. As of 2:10 p.m. Monday (May 23), “I hate it” has 72 percent of the votes, with “Whatever” claiming 28 percent.

While the Masterpiece hit Downton Abbey failed to win BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) TV Awards for any of its three category nominations, its Sherlock grabbed two top trophies at ceremonies Sunday night in London, according to TV Squad. The detective show won best drama series and best supporting actor for Martin Freeman, who plays Watson. Freeman’s co-star Benedict Cumberbatch lost out in the best actor category to Daniel Rigby (Flyboys) for his role as legendary British comedian Eric Morecambe in Eric & Ernie. Rigby also beat out Doctor Who star Matt Smith. Downton Abbey was nominated for three major awards — drama series, supporting actor and audience favorite — but failed to win any.

PBS narrowly averted losing the membership of Chicago affiliate WTTW, the New York Times is reporting today (May 23). Earlier this year the board of WTTW-TV told management to consider withdrawing from the system, as KCET had done in January. “Our board, they are smart business people,” says Dan Schmidt, WTTW president, “and when they look at our business model they scratch their heads and they say this is upside down from a business standpoint.” He says his station pays $4.5 million a year in PBS dues, and yet “viewers can see that content on other stations and increasingly, whenever they want to on PBS.org.”

Plans to restructure NPR’s digital services to pubradio stations, in the works for months, have finally gotten down to specifics: what NPR will offer, what it will cost and who will pay. Based on prices that NPR has proposed — between $1,800 and $100,000 a year — some stations are now experiencing a new virtual variety of sticker shock. In round robin meetings that began in April, NPR execs have been briefing station leaders on their planned offering, a comprehensive package of technology support, training and content, but some station leaders reacted angrily after a May 12 NPR memo said all member stations would be required to pay fees for the services.

Marfa Public Radio continues to win praise for its April coverage of massive wildfires, the latest coming via a Texas Tribune story in today’s (May 22) New York Times. “Had MPR not been around on April 9, when an electrical malfunction in a former storefront less than two miles west of downtown Marfa ignited the largest wildfire in Texas history, it might have meant the difference between life and death for some West Texans,” it notes. “It was like standing at the mouth of hell,” said Anne Adkins, MPR’s office manager. “We didn’t have a news team, so we became the news team.”