NPR’s entry into podcasting is going “spectacularly well,” says Ken Stern, executive v.p., in Radio World. (Earlier coverage in Current.)

Pubradio consultant John Sutton ponders the idea of “news fatigue” in his latest blog post. “‘News fatigue’ sounds like a handy answer to questions about public radio’s audience decline,” he writes. “But it is a ‘blame the listener’ response.”

Media activist Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy has asked PBS’s new ombudsman to see whether the network’s underwriting rules are permitting underwriters to back programs that serve their interests. He cites the recent American Experience history of Las Vegas, underwritten by the city’s tourist authority and a foundation related to the Las Vegas Sun. [Current article.] WGBH told Current that most funding for the show came from usual series sources not related to Las Vegas and that none of the funders saw the program before underwriting the episode.

Peggy Girshman, NPR’s assistant managing editor, shares a recipe for tri-color butter cookie swirls in advance of the annual NPR Cookie Day.

NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin reads a 1988 article about NPR and laments that his network has lost some of its past quirkiness.

The Bergen (N.J.) Record profiles WFMU-FM in Jersey City, N.J., and music director Brian Turner. “One of the things I really love about music is discovering and finding out about all these things that dwell on the margins that you didn’t even know existed,” Turner says. Also: a blogger listens to (almost) nothing but WFMU for a week and lives to tell the tale.

The Chicago Tribune reviews Sound Opinions, a rock-criticism radio show that jumped from commercial radio to Chicago’s WBEZ-FM last weekend. The debut “kept things punchy and unprofessorial,” writes Steve Johnson.

A recent This American Life segment about Africa (RealAudio) dismayed a blogger with experience in the country. “In the only story in 2005 I can recall that mentioned Africa, you . . . managed to reinforce the majority of stupid Africa stereotypes I’ve encountered in 12 years of working on African issues and periodically living on the continent.”

The title character of The Teachings of Jon is a middle-aged North Carolina man with Down syndrome who has an IQ of 20, can’t speak and has a job that pulls in 27 cents a week. “But my film is not about Down syndrome at all,” says Jennifer Owensby, producer, director — and Jon’s younger sister. She says the documentary is not really about Jon, either. “My brother can’t be the main character because my brother never changes. It’s my family and the audience as they’re watching who become the main character.” The Teachings of Jon offers an entertaining short course on family values, albeit as embodied by a somewhat unorthodox family.

In a farewell delivered on the final installment of PBS’s Journal Editorial Report, Paul Gigot thanked his producers, former CPB Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson and viewers. “To the many PBS stations that carried us around the country, thank you for your commitment to public affairs programming that represents more than one point of view,” Gigot said. “We wish every station shared that commitment.”

In his first column as PBS ombudsman, Michael Getler faults PBS and producers of Breaking the Silence: Children’s Stories for a “flawed presentation.” He writes: “There was a complete absence of some of the fundamental journalistic conventions that, in fact, make a story more powerful and convincing because they, at a minimum, acknowledge that there is another side.”

New York’s WNYE-FM is simulcasting music programming from XM Satellite Radio, reports Radio and Records. (Via DCRTV.)

Fox News Channel announced that it will add the Journal Editorial Report to its lineup in January. Developed for PBS, the show has been at the heart of the Kenneth Tomlinson balance controversy. It will appear on PBS for the last time Dec. 2. “Roger Ailes and the Fox News Channel team have proven they can attract viewers with serious news programming and commentary,” said Paul Gigot, the show’s host and editorial page editor for the Wall Street Journal. “I look forward to working with them to make the Journal Editorial Report part of their successful lineup.”

Humorist Andy Borowitz imagines that President Bush considered bombing NPR in advance of the Iraq War until British Prime Minister Tony Blair talked him out of it.

CPB Ombudsman Ken Bode responds to criticisms of the PBS program Breaking the Silence: Children’s Stories, “[T]his broadcast is so slanted as to raise suspicions that either the family courts of America have gone crazy or there must be another side to the story.”