Pittsburgh’s WQED Multimedia has begun generating revenue by originating high-def satellite teleconferences and musical performances beamed to specially equipped suites in 67 Morton’s Steakhouses around the country, to be demonstrated in a live news conference this afternoon. Velocity Broadcasting — a division of Elias/Savion Inc., Morton’s ad agency — is offering the “precision marketing” service to businesses as well as closed-circuit entertainment events in the Higher Definition Private Performance Series, which launched in October with a concert by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, also originated by WQED.

Ellen Weiss, an award-winning producer and editor in NPR’s news division over 25 years, will become its leader, the network announced last week. She is the newsroom’s first homegrown journalist after three veeps who established their journalistic credentials elsewher Weiss, who had been interim news v.p., moves up from her previous job as senior editor of the national desk to succeed Bill Marimow, who became editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Marimow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning print reporter, was credited with strengthening NPR’s investigative reporting during more than 2½ years at NPR, including eight months as top news executive. The announcement to the NPR News staff capped an exceptional week for Weiss, who was offered the promotion April 3 and learned the next day that she would share a Peabody Award.

Discovery today cut approximately 200 staffers, or roughly 3 percent of its workforce, Broadcasting & Cable reports. Network management let go roughly 20 percent of the aggregate staffs of the Discovery Channel; Animal Planet; the Education group; and some Corporate Service groups.

Public broadcasting’s five CPB-funded minority consortia sent this letter to PBS President Paula Kerger on April 9, 2007. Dear Paula: I’m writing to you on behalf of my colleagues of the National Minority Consortia (NMC), which, along with the National Black Programming Consortium, includes the Center for Asian American Media, Latino Public Broadcasting, Native American Public Telecommunications and Pacific Islanders in Communications. We would like to offer our support to you in helping to address in a positive manner what we view as legitimate community concerns over the omission of Latino voices from Ken Burns’ The War. It is not the idea of an intentional exclusion that raises the flag of indignation from the American public – and not only, as has been suggested, Hispanic Americans.

Discovery plans to launch an earth-focused channel and turn its Silver Spring, Md., headquarters “green” as part of a $50 million project it’s calling PlanetGreen, Broadcasting & Cable reports. The cable network will relaunch its current Home channel as the as-yet-unnamed eco-friendly channel next year. Programs will focus on eco-design, organic food and “green” architecture, among other topics.

A study released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Education found that educational software used in schools has no impact on student performance. “No technology adds value by itself,” said John Deasy, superintendent of schools in Prince George’s County, Md., in a Washington Post report on the study. “Just employing software is not likely to lift test scores for students.”

An NPR report on post-traumatic stress disorder among Iraq War veterans and a PBS American Masters documentary on Andy Warhol are two of six pubcasting entries to receive 2006 Peabody Awards.

Jim Russell has posted a Wikipedia entry on Bill Siemering and invites others to contribute. It begins, “Bill Siemering is a certified genius.”

It’s been a bumpy ride — critics hammered the inital idea, directors complained of undue interference from above, advisers quit — but the post-9/11 series America at a Crossroads is finally set for broadcast, says the New York Times. (See Current’s stories on its development, criticism, controversy, emergence and more recent flaps.)

“[I]t is fundamentally wrong to exclude the Latino experience on a subject of the magnitude of World War II, especially in a high-profile, publicly supported project like The War,” says Eduardo Díaz, executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center, in an Albuquerque Journal report on the controversy over Ken Burns’ forthcoming PBS series. In an editorial published today, the Journal calls on KNME to drop Burns’ documentary from its schedule and highlight local programs on New Mexico’s WWII veterans.

The gaming industry has discovered an enthusiastic and growing audience among retirees, according to the New York Times. “Baby boomers and up are definitely our fastest-growing demographic, and it is because the fear factor is diminishing,” said Beatrice Spaine, pogo.com marketing director. “Women come for the games, but they stay for the community….It’s kind of a MySpace for seniors.”

Vermont PTV’s Ann Curran describes the art of pledge programming to a Burlington Free Press writer who can’t tell the difference between Suze Orman and Christiane Northrup.

Leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with public TV executives on Tuesday to discuss their concerns about the absence of Latino-American veterans in The War, Ken Burns’ 14-hour World War II documentary series slated for a PBS debut in September. Lawmakers may try to restrict pubTV’s federal funding if PBS doesn’t address their concerns, according to Politico, a newspaper and website covering the Washington, D.C., political scene. “The bottom line is we also have the right to do what we can economically with PBS to show our displeasure,” said Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas). “I hope it won’t come to that.”

The MacArthur Foundation named Chicago’s Kartemquin Films, a frequent pubTV producer, as one of this year’s eight recipients of its MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. The Chronicle of Philanthropy profiles Kartemquin, headed by co-founder Gordon Quinn. The company is known for Hoop Dreams, Refrigerator Mothers and the series The New Americans, among other social documentaries.

TV writers at the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times agree: tonight’s two-hour PBS documentary The Boomer Century is a tiresome rehash.