A v.p. at WFPK-FM in Louisville, Ky., was suspended for three days after mouthing off to a journalist who had criticized program changes at the station, reports the Louisville Courier-Journal.

On the Media co-host Bob Garfield critiques our image-obsessed media in The Washington Post: “On the altar of all-news-all-the-time has been sacrificed the permanence of history.”

“Kids can have a very wonderful relationship with ‘Arthur,’ but let’s face it: He’s an aardvark.” The Detroit Free Press ponders the absence of live humans on children’s television.

Under the spending formula imposed on CPB by Congress in 1981, does the corporation have the authority to spend some of the portion reserved for stations by selectively giving out Future Fund R&D grants? When CPB created the TV Future Fund in 1995, it took half of the money from the 6 percent of its appropriation that the formula allocates to “system support” (see yellow portion of graphic at right). There is no dispute about that. The dispute is about the half that CPB spent from the 73 percent of 75 percent of 89 percent (no kidding!) that is allocated to grants for stations (the pale blue portion at right).

In a Miami Herald editorial, J-school ethicist Edward Wasserman writes that the BBC’s report on weapons of mass destruction may have been more accurate than the “sexed up” intelligence dossier that it discredited, but the Beeb’s handling of the controversial report was “just as heedless and arrogant as the politicos who were the targets of the broadcast.” [Via Media Bistro.]

Kathleen A. Cox will step up from chief operating officer of CPB, becoming the corporation’s first woman president July 1 [2004]. Robert T. Coonrod, president since 1997, said he recognized her as a good successor four years ago and groomed her for the job. The CPB Board announced Cox’s promotion Jan. 27. Coonrod will work with her at CPB until October and says he wants to find a new job after that. Though CPB announced it will discontinue its Television Future Fund this fall (separate story), Cox and Coonrod endorsed the need for continued funding of research, development and training to confront public TV’s problems.

The Television Future Fund is dead, long live the Television Future Fund. CPB will discontinue the R&D fund this fall, redirecting about $4 million to public TV stations’ Community Service Grants for next fiscal year. The corporation has not decided the future of its Public Radio Public Service Competitive Fund, which gets some of its funding in a similar way. The decision on the TV fund not only aids hard-pressed station but also defuses a political time bomb. Some stations contend CPB reallocated money illegally to set up the Future Fund nine years ago. Republican legislators have taken notice and asked for analysis in a forthcoming report by the General Accounting Office.

“Despite Beyond the Color Line‘s scholarly pedigree and A-list interviewees, it too often falls victim to that bland, earnest tone that dogs the PBS documentary.” Slate reviews Henry Louis Gates’ new PBS series on divisions within the African American community.

WGBH is negotiating with Boston city authorities for permission to cover part of its new headquarters with a”digital skin” of electronic images overlooking the Massachusetts Turnpike, the Boston Globe says. ‘GBH promises to be classy but the city fears others might not be. [Earlier article on WGBH’s new home.]

Billy Tauzin, the Louisiana congressman who oversees broadcasting and CPB as House Commerce chairman, announced his retirement from the committee effective Feb. 16 and from Congress after this term, the Washington Post reported. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) is expected to succeed Tauzin as chair, the Post said. In 2002 Barton named himself as “one of the skeptics about the need for public broadcasting today.” Tauzin is expected to take the top drug-industry lobbying job. Public Citizen called for an ethics investigation because Tauzin had was a leader in negotiating the Medicare drug bill.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave the Public Radio Exchange a $350,000 grant.

GuideStar, the data source about nonprofits, lists numerous Internet mailing lists (listservs) and newsgroups about charities and fundraising.

The Bush administration proposes to crack down on taxpayers’ valuations of cars donated to charities and other non-cash gifts, but will also would decrease tax revenue by giving limited charitable deductions to the majority of taxpayers who don’t itemize deductions.

“An election this week will determine whether a generation of young people in this region will grow up hearing America’s most important musical heritage or a steady diet of political propaganda,” writes the Washington Post‘s Marc Fisher about the upcoming board election for WPFW, the Washington Pacifica station. A Columbia Spectator article touches on the politics of elections at New York’s WBAI-FM, another Pacifica station.

In its FY05 budget, the Bush White House again chose not to propose an advance appropriation for CPB [PDF file], leaving the FY07 question for Congress to handle. Congress already has allotted $400 mil for FY06. The budget also tries again to terminate PTFP grants for facilities, but it proposes to plump the NEA budget by $18 mil and NEH by $37 mil for major initiatives on “American Masterpieces” and American history (“We the People”). The budget maintains Ready to Learn TV at its $23 mil level, but zeroes out Ready to Teach and Star Schools funding.