Since CBS aired Hal Holbrook’s Mark Twain show in 1967 “no one, not even public television, has put the performance on the air,” Bill Moyers observed during an interview with Holbrook aired on Now March 19. PBS, like other broadcasters, balked at the word “nigger,” from Huckleberry Finn excerpts. Holbrook said: “Well, when you get into corporate decision-making, especially in these days of political correctness, you are in jail.” Alan Foster told the story last fall in Current.

NPR hired William K. Marimow as an additional managing editor, a new position. Marimow edited the Baltimore Sun until January, when the paper’s publisher fired him, telling the Washington Post that “our partnership was not where I wanted it to be.” (Latter article via Romenesko.)

James Randi, the magician and debunker of paranormal hoaxes, observes on his website that public TV stations “are featuring both Dr. Wayne Dyer and Dr. Gary Null, to take advantage of the public’s taste for quackery.” (Scroll down to the photo of Null’s book “Healing with Magnets.”)

Leslie Cagan, former chair of Pacifica’s interim national board, urged an audience at a March 12 meeting to abandon “the ugly and at times de-mobilizing ways” that struggle has manifested within the network. Cagan stepped down as a newly elected board assumed power. Pacifica has also settled differences with a former manager of its New York station.

Peter Troxell, former g.m. of KUSP-FM in Santa Cruz, Calif., died of cancer March 17. His son kept a moving weblog about his death.

The Associated Press looks at competition between public radio and religious broadcasters for spectrum, with a recent Marylan dispute as an example.

APTS goes public with a release about its digital-only proposal, suggesting that public TV could relinquish analog channels ahead of time in exchange for a trust fund that would supplement CPB aid. See also Current‘s article.

National Journal‘s William Powers devotes a column to Brian Lamb’s C-SPAN, the media wallflower now celebrating its 25th anniversary. He describes C-SPAN’s singular ability to show political life at length–specifically John Kerry demonstrating what Powers regards as charisma in a personal appearance, so different from the disdainful treatment the candidate has gotten from media heavies.

Former PBS and CPB programmer Jennifer Lawson will head Howard University’s WHUT in Washington, D.C., the Washington Post reported. The station, which has long aimed to be the flagship of African-American public TV, has not had a permanent g.m. since Adam Clayton Powell III left more than a year ago.

NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin revisits Sandra Tsing Loh’s cancellation, urging his network to cover the story: “Public radio in general — and NPR in particular — has seemed less than eager to report on itself whenever we become the legitimate subject of news reports in other places. … Get over it, NPR.” (Via Romenesko.)

Dan Reed, p.d. at WFPK-FM in Louisville, Ky., will move to the same job at WTMD-FM in Towson, Md., reports the Louisville Eccentric Observer.

More coverage of the Loh flap from the Los Angeles Times (reg. req.), Time (in a column by Loh herself) and Google News.

Chuck Niles, a renowned Los Angeles jazz deejay who called KKJZ-FM home since 1990, died yesterday at the age of 76, reports the Long Beach Press Telegram.

Ruth Seymour, KCRW g.m., admitted fault today and invited Sandra Tsing Loh to return to the air, but Loh declined.

New laws raising indecency fines are worrying some smaller broadcasters, including noncoms, reports The Oregonian.