A large article in The Nation assesses NPR and finds it guilty of excessively safe and stodgy journalism. Garrison Keillor discusses his wide-ranging tastes in radio programs: “Once, on the Merritt Parkway heading for New York, I came upon The American Atheist Hour, the sheer tedium of which was wildly entertaining — there’s nobody so humorless as a devout atheist.”

In the Wall Street Journal, Jacob Laksin of the conservative Center for the Study of Popular Culture argues that NPR’s On the Media is “in thrall to left-wing politics.”

If Newt Gingrich had succeeded in privatizing public broadcasting, PBS wouldn’t be in the situation it’s in today, writes Jonathan Chait in today’s Los Angeles Times. “The only reason PBS has to have GOP partisans scrubbing it of any faint signs of residual liberalism is that it has to answer to the federal government.”

Attorney and former FCC chairman Reed Hundt , a co-chair of the PBS-appointed Digital Future Initiative, previewed his thinking in a Current commentary seven months before the panel issued its recommendations at the end of 2005. See also Co-chair James Barksdale’s commentary. Jim Barksdale said at the very first meeting of the Digital Future Initiative that one thing that he learned in his different business successes is that the main thing is to make the main thing always be the main thing. I’m going to try to do that today by telling you the main thing on my mind after working for months with our distinguished panel and bringing in lots of other people to talk to us.

The New York Times editorial board weighs in on politicization of public broadcasting.

Public radio producer Benjamen Walker defends the Public Radio Exchange against a rival site: “ELITIST???? Man, I want to punch that guy in the mouth.”

Showtime has greenlit a TV version of This American Life. The public radio show has already crossed over to Hollywood with a Warner Bros. deal.

A Seattle Times scribe urges the city’s public schools district not to sell its noncommercial radio station, a popular dance-music outlet: “Selling irreplaceable assets to patch recurring budget deficits is a mistake. Even if you net $8 million.”

Public radio’s The Connection devotes an hour to CPB today, with Current Senior Editor Karen Everhart as a guest.

Readers of the New York Times weigh in on the CPB fracas: “The Republicans have been heedless to the fact of separation of church and state, and now they are trampling on one of our most cherished freedoms, freedom of the press,” writes one. “Where is the outrage?” asks another.

In the Washington Post, Bob Edwards cites NPR’s “pettiness” in refusing to let Scott Simon promote his new book on Edwards’ XM Radio show. NPR responds that the policy applies to all “competitive” talk shows.

Media Matters for America accuses the New York Times of glossing over the political affiliations of CPB’s new ombudsmen.

“The best remedy for this week’s public broadcasting crisis isn’t the dismantling of the ‘objectivity and balance’ firewall but the abolishment of the CPB itself,” argues Slate‘s Jack Shafer, who says public broadcasters should fund their independence from goverment dollars with a massive spectrum sell-off.

Just when you thought public broadcasting was already plenty politically-charged, here comes Tom Magliozzi to add his own two cents. The Car Talk loose cannon took time out of a trip to D.C. this week to tell the Washington Post that “George Bush is a [unprintable vulgarity].”

Big score for social conservatives: Of the nearly 200,000 responses that the Department of Education received after the controversy over lesbian parents in the PBS children’s show Postcards from Buster, the overwhelming majority came from supporters of the American Family Association, according to USA Today.