Democratic members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees U.S. international broadcasting efforts and is headed by Kenneth Tomlinson, tried to force the former CPB chair from the panel in response to a State Department probe suggesting he’s abused his authority while on the job. The measure failed on a party line vote, however. Tomlinson has said the allegations stem from partisan divisions on the board.

According to a former FCC lawyer, the commission ordered staffers to destroy copies of a 2004 report that suggested media ownership consolidation would hurt local TV news coverage, the Associated Press reports (via USA Today). That conclusion, the AP notes, is at odds with arguments the commission made “when it voted in 2003 to increase the number of television stations a company could own in a single market.” The report came to light earlier this week during the Senate confirmation hearing for current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who said he did not know about the study in question. Martin succeeded former chair Michael Powell in 2005.

Associated Press reports on the dilemmas that parents face in limiting preschoolers’ exposure to TV.

Now here’s something you’ll really like: YouTube has a clip of Tucker Carlson’s first (possibly last?) appearance on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, courtesy Wonkette.

The New York Times reports on two new developments in the race to get ahead in the “My Time” media biz: NBC created a new company that will distribute video to various Internet sites and reportedly take a 50 percent split of the ad revenues. And Apple CEO Steve Jobs yesterday unveiled a wireless device, dubbed iTV, that will pull video and music from the computer to the television. Apple also announced the pricing structure for downloads of new movies offered by its iTunes online store.

A Huffington Post plug for last night’s NewsHour segment on the ABC docudrama “Path to 9/11” drew some negative comments, and a lukewarm defense, of the NewsHour itself.

NPR said it has named Farai Chideya, a correspondent and sometime host for News & Notes, to replace Ed Gordon as host of the weekdaily public affairs hour. The network will also add online interactivity to the show produced with African-American pubradio stations. Chideya is founder of the Pop + Politics website and former talk host of San Francisco’s KALW-FM who has worked for ABC News, CNN, MTV, Oxygen cable channel and Newsweek. Nicole Childers was promoted to e.p. NPR and Gordon swapped some finger-pointing this summer over responsibility for the program’s limited carriage.

Ric Burns’ four-hour American Masters bio, Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film, is having digital theatrical debuts hosted by pubTV stations that began Sunday in 20 cities around the country, WNET announced. (The late artist’s brother, Paul Warhola, will appear at tomorrow’s screening in the Pittsburgh area, where Warhol grew up.) Emerging Pictures, which seeks to put arthouse films on more screens around the country, is distributing to theaters [15 listed].

“He is the wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time,” says Common Cause President Chellie Pingree, in a press release announcing an e-lobbying campaign against Senate confirmation of CPB Board nominee Warren Bell. The nominee’s lack of interest in the field and provocatively anti-P.C. sense of humor disqualify him for the appointment, Common Cause says in a report posted on its website today.

TV ratings juggernaut Nielsen Media Research is in talks with Clear Channel’s electronic ratings service about measuring radio listening, potentially threatening Arbitron’s control of the industry, Mediaweek reports.

A state agency has cited a tower service company for three violations of safety regulations involved in a fatal accident on an Iowa Public Television tower near Des Moines, TV Technology reported. Three workers, including the proprietor of the company, were being lifted to change light bulbs on the tower when they fell 1,200 feet and died in the March incident.

Two of PBS’s top technical officers are leaving this month: Ed Caleca, senior v.p. of technology and operations, and Andre Mendes, chief technology integration officer, according to TV Technology. Caleca leaves Sept. 15 and Mendes Sept. 29, the magazine’s website said.

King Features Syndicate will begin distributing a weekly current-affairs column by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman on Oct. 24, Editor & Publisher reports. She predicts “Amy Goodman: Breaking the Sound Barrier” will bring out voices of the “silenced majority.” Goodman and her journalist brother David are co-authors of this year’s Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back, now available at Wal-Mart!

This fall Public Radio International will launch Fair Game with Faith Salie, an hourlong evening program featuring interviews, political satire and in-studio musical performances. Host Salie has done standup comedy and appeared on TV shows including Significant Others and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.