Now it’s South Dakota pubcasting that may face state funding reductions. The Daily Republic in Mitchell, S.D., reports that Republican state legislator Noel Hamiel suggested this week at a town forum that the state consider pulling back funding to South Dakota Public Broadcasting, which he dubbed one of the capital’s “sacred cows.” He added: “I would like to see public broadcasting wean itself from public funding.” But Democrat Frank Kloucek quickly countered, “I think that sometimes we lose sight of what is for the public good. SDPB does a lot of good for our communities.”

Public broadcasting thought leader Rob Bole declares himself an evolutionist — at least when it comes to the growth of the pubcasting system into the public media future. In a new post on his personal opinion blog, he writes: “The Rube Goldberg machine of public broadcasting is a strange creature and while it looks painful, for what we have asked of it, it has largely worked. Changing it too rapidly is a bad idea. Leaving it alone is even worse. … My framework for governing the public broadcasting transformation is grounded in the belief that changes should be evolutionary, not revolutionary.”

WNET confirmed yesterday that Alison Stewart, former cohost of NPR’s Bryant Park Project, and Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek, will be co-hosts of Need to Know, the new PBS newsmag that begins May 7. The program will fill 60 of the 90 minutes that PBS has allotted to Bill Moyers’ Journal and Now on Friday evenings. Politically progressive fans of the two retiring shows flooded the in-box of PBS ombudsman Michael Getler with most of the past week’s 3,000 e-mails, Getler wrote yesterday. The e-mails seemed to be prompted, Getler said, by an alert from the liberal press watchdog FAIR tarring Meacham as “a consummate purveyor of middle-of-the-road conventional wisdom with a conservative slant,” judged unlikely to do the “hard-hitting” journalism of Now and Moyers.

CPB next Thursday announces a major news initiative to help stations produce more in-depth local journalism. CPB President Pat Harrison will detail the project, joined by the PBS President Paula Kerger and NPR President Vivian Schiller (via live video feed). Following will be a panel discussion on the role of pubmedia in reporting, with Hari Sreenivasan, PBS NewsHour correspondent; Tom Rosenstiel, director of PEW’s Project for Excellence in Journalism; Nishat Kurwa, news director of Youth Media International; Tom Karlo, general manager of KPBS TV-FM; and Kinsey Wilson, NPR’s senior v.p. and general manager of Digital Media. The event will be streamed live from the Newseum in Washington.

This month the bracket brouhaha emerges once again, but forget all that March Madness b-ball boredom. This year, try a little Muppet Madness. It’s brought to you by MuppetCast, the weekly podcast of all things Jim Henson and Muppets. Who will win in Miss Piggy vs. Pepe? Oscar vs. Big Bird? Bert & Ernie vs. The Count? (Hey, that’s two against one …) You may vote in all the matches each 12 hours until April 5.

In reaction to the new National Broadband Plan, the Open Mobile Video Coalition told a teleconference of reporters today that mobile DTV is superior to broadband to deliver mobile video, reports TVNewsCheck. Brandon Burgess, CEO of Ion Media and coalition chair, said broadcasting can simultaneously deliver video to millions of viewers without overworking Internet and cellphone networks. “No other solution out there can really do that,” he said. The coalition is made up of more than 800 private and public television stations in America, as well as PBS, CPB and APTS.

The Leading Gen!, currently carried by some 120 PBS affiliates, seems to be on a publicity roll. Last month Daily Variety TV critic Brian Lowry described the 13-part series on aging, introducing readers to neurosurgeon James Ausman and wife Carolyn, producers, and adding that for PBS, ” … catering to those over 50 — the people who are predominantly watching public TV anyway — isn’t just good business; it’s a no-brainer.” Last week the Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., wrote that producing station KVCR-DT in San Bernardino calls it “the ultimate reality show,” and it’s won two Telly Awards.

KOCE in Huntington Beach, Calif., is joining the Orange County Local News Network (OCLNN), owned by the for-profit web journalism chain United States Local News Network. OCLNN reporters will file stories for KOCE’s Real Orange news program, and its digital OC Channel. Some KOCE-produced content will also be at OCLNN.com. The two will also work together on local public affairs projects.

As the South by Southwest Music festival keeps getting bigger and bigger, the potential for bands to break through to commercial success diminish, observes New York Times ArtsBeat blogger Ben Sisario. He points to last night’s opening showcase, sponsored by NPR Music and headlined by Austin’s own Spoon, as a case in point: “It was a plum gig, reflecting not only Spoon’s preeminence but also the emergence of NPR as a major force in independent music. . . . [T]he band was received as heroes, symbolizing the best of what South by Southwest is about: artistic credibility, insouciant cool, left-of-the-dial independence.

NPR and the Washington Post are offering an unusual joint fellowship honoring two sons of an NPR journalist. The six-month program, split between the two newsrooms, is seeking applicants by April 30 and will begin in the fall [more information]. The Stone & Holt Weeks Fellowship was created in memory of Stone Weeks, 24, and his brother Holt, 20, sons of Linton Weeks, an NPR reporter who formerly wrote for the Post, and Jan Taylor Weeks, an artist and teacher. The young men were both research assistants at Rice University in Houston. They were returning to their parents’ home in the Washington area July 23 when their car was struck by a truck in Virginia.

NPR Music’s live coverage of the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin begins with tonight’s showcase headlined by Spoon, a hometown favorite kicking off their U.S. tour with this SXSW performance. Tune in at 9 p.m. ET to catch the full line-up including Visqueen, the Walkmen, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, and Broken Bells. Tomorrow at 1:30 pm ET, NPR Music presents a daytime showcase of six acts headlined by the Sleigh Bells. Five public radio stations–The Current, KEXP, KUT, WFUV, and WXPN–are presenting SXSW coverage in partnership with NPR; most plan to broadcast and webcast their own live shows.

No kicking back with a green beer for PBS NewsHour Producer Linda Scott this St. Patrick’s Day. She’s in charge of organizing tonight’s huge Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner in D.C. Some 2,000 guests are expected at the Washington Convention Center for one of the District’s largest soirees. “We’re going to pull out the stops and have a good time,” Scott told the Washington Times. At the head table: Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Republican Sens. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. They’ll nosh on a menu including ravioli garnished with lobster and crayfish.

Reactions are in from the G4– CPB, PBS, APTS and NPR — regarding today’s historic National Broadband Plan release. Excerpts:CPB: “In particular, we appreciate the Taskforce’s recognition of public media’s important role in serving our democracy, as well as our role in America’s broadband future. We also appreciate the Taskforce’s recognition that, if public media is to continue to fulfill our statutory responsibility to provide every American with free educational and cultural programming in the digital age, more funding will be necessary. The report presents many interesting opportunities as well as challenges, both for our country and for public media.”

Congrats to station reps Kelly McCarthy of Vegas PBS and Michelle Dillard of KTXT in Lubbock, Texas, who won goodies for the PBS Annual Meeting May 17-20 in Austin, Texas. McCarthy now has an American Airlines voucher for her flights, and Dillard scored three complimentary nights at the Hilton Austin where the meeting will take place.

The FCC’s National Broadband Plan has arrived (background: Current, Sept. 21, 2009) with its advice to Congress for expanding broadband reach across America. The FCC has posted it in searchable form. It advises that 500 megahertz of spectrum be made available for broadband within 10 years, of which 300 megahertz should be made available for mobile use within five years. The much anticipated pubcasting trust fund is indeed included. Public broadcasters could give up spectrum (Current, Feb. 8) and those proceeds would endow a trust “for the production, distribution and archiving of digital public media.”