“As educational as magnetic,” says Los Angeles Times TV critic Howard Rosenberg. “Intimate, eye-opening and completely fascinating,” raves Salon’s Joyce Millman. “Brilliantly disguised as just another reality show . . .  the very best TV show of 2002,” gushes Aaron Barnhart of the Kansas City Star. TV critics seem reluctant to hold back praise for 1900 House, Frontier House and 1940s House, the “living history” series brought to PBS by WNET’s Beth Hoppe and the British production company Wall to Wall Television. Since 1900 House debuted in June 2000, viewers, too, have marveled at how ordinary families face life without the technological and social conveniences of the 21st century.

NPR’s Steve Inskeep tells The Washington Post Magazine about his experiences covering war. “I miss going to Fresh Fields and buying cat food,” he confides.

WUNC-FM in Chapel Hill and a local group of critics recently met to discuss the station’s news fare, which came under fire for being too Establishment and dependent on NPR. “Most of the crowd characterized the network as not merely stuck inside the box, but as being the box,” writes The Independent Weekly.

Burnie Clark, president of Seattle’s KCTS for 16 years, resigned abruptly Thursday, before publication of a Seattle Times series on problems at the station. The Times reported that KCTS owes $2.8 million in back payments to PBS and $229,000 in rent to the city. Eleven staffers were laid off and more than 20 may follow. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer said the station declined to renew the contract of production chief David Rabinovitch last week. Current reported earlier that KCTS had run deficits for six of the past seven years.

The Poynter Institute profiles Michele Norris, new host of NPR’s All Things Considered.

Looks like Christopher Lydon’s running a weblog.

The NewsHour Extra website practices a “new hybrid online genre” that combines daily journalism with lesson plans, reports the New York Times.

Anne Garrels has left Baghdad.

Embedding “has been a public relations bonanza for the military,” says NPR host Bob Edwards, who shared other criticisms of the media with an audience in Kentucky, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

“Where should journalists draw a line separating news from opinion? Throughout much of Fox, the question never arises.” Howard Rosenberg reviews the Fox News Channel’s war coverage in the LA Times.

The contract for Mark Keefe, program manager of WNCW-FM in Spindale, N.C., will not be renewed after expiring June 30, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times. But Keefe told Triplearadio.com that “the report was premature.” WNCW recently faced FCC scrutiny over fundraising practices. [An earlier version of this post misrepresented the Citizen-Times article.]

The FCC released a Report and Order today explaining how it will handle situations in which commercial and non-commercial broadcasters compete for non-reserved spectrum. Report and Order: PDF, Word, text. Concurring statement by Commissioner Michael Copps: PDF, Word, text. News release: PDF, Word, text.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer profiles ideastream, the merger of local public stations WVIZ-TV and WCPN-FM.

Educational TV can’t exist without marketing tie-ins, but some toys teach better than others, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

The American Journalism Review profiles Jefferson Public Radio, an extensive regional network based in Ashland, Ore. “It’s the tie that binds the region together,” says a former news director.