The latest Eastern Public Radio newsletter covers Vinnie Curren’s CPB appointment (see below), successful fund drives, format advice and more.

Bill Moyers came out swinging three days after the Nov. 5 midterm elections, and the target of his jabs—America’s right wing—came swinging back. Conservatives said he made a hysterical partisan attack on Republicans in his commentary on PBS’s Now with Bill Moyers Nov. 8. Lamenting the GOP sweep of both houses of Congress, Moyers slammed the majority party’s agenda, which he believes will “force pregnant women to give up control over their own lives,” use “taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich” and give “corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment.” The Now host also railed against the close ties between Republican leaders and the religious right.

Public radio producer Aimée Pomerleau just set up a website, Scorcher Radio.

CPB named Vinnie Curren, g.m. of WXPN in Philadelphia, its senior v.p. of radio.

Pacifica appointed Don Rojas to manage WBAI, its New York station.

An activist raises concerns about Eva Georgia, general manager of Los Angeles Pacifica station KPFK-FM, in an article for the L.A. Independent Media Center.

Prosecutors in a Houston capital murder case are challenging a judge’s order to allow Frontline to film the upcoming trial and jury deliberations, according to an Associated Press wire story.

Frontline producer and reporter Martin Smith discusses “In Search of Al Qaeda”, which aired last night on many PBS stations.

A profile in today’s Washington Post describes the Nov. 24 debut of Skinwalkers as a defining moment for PBS President Pat Mitchell.

PBS’s publicity blitz for Skinwalkers on Mystery! is churning up a spate of favorable press. Google’s news search engine turned up 11 newspaper stories published since Nov. 19. The LA Times ran a Nov. 17 feature on what a trial it was for Robert Redford to bring Tony Hillerman’s Native American mystery to the screen.

PBS’s Benjamin Franklin apparently held its own against stiff November sweeps competition. The first part of the two-night miniseries pulled in a 2.9 household rating, according to an account in Media Life. That’s about 61 percent better than the network’s national average this season.

Pacifica held a marathon fundraiser Nov. 19 and is seeking grants to preserve decaying tapes that document recent decades of activism in its program archive, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

This year’s Public Radio Talk Conference was received so well that PRNDI has scheduled a second annual event for May 2003.

John Potthast is leaving Maryland Public Television to oversee development of new national programming for WETA in Arlington, Va., reports the Washington Post.

The bad blood between Virginia’s public TV stations has come to a boil, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The stations are feuding over how to share limited state money.