The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Board of Directors adopted this statement in November 2002. I. Local Services and Content Strengthen the value and viability of local stations as essential community institutions by improving their operational effectiveness and fiscal stability, and increasing their capacity to invest in and create sustainable services and content that will advance their local mission. To achieve this Goal, CPB will pursue the following objectives: A. Measure the value of local service as perceived by the intended beneficiaries-Conduct research to understand how various media are used by the audiences stations serve or hope to serve in the future, and how the pattern of use is changing as new platforms and media emerge.

Public radio journalist Jeremy Scahill is now in Baghdad producing IraqJournal.org. Some of his pieces are also airing on Democracy Now!.

Online petitioners are urging NPR to fire reporter Nancy Marshall after she reported that only 10,000 protestors marched against war in Iraq Oct. 26 in Washington, D.C. Marshall’s figure falls far short of numbers provided by police and organizers, who estimated a turnout of somewhere between 75,000 and 200,000. You can hear Marshall’s report. [Via randomWalks.]

“PBS president Pat Mitchell refuses to pledge allegiance to pledge drives” in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Gail Shister. This isn’t the first time a PBS president questioned the tactics that stations use to generate viewer contributions, and not the first time that Mitchell has discussed her concerns with the press.

A video diary by Columbia University sophomore Cecilia Garza “offers an unusual, deeply honest story of one rural Latina’s struggles in the big city,” reports the New York Times. The diary is one of three featured on Borders, a 10-week, web-only series by P.O.V.

Chicago’s WBEZ angered peace activists when it rejected an underwriting spot that included information about a “community forum and peace vigil proclaiming a moral voice against war with Iraq,” reports the Chicago Reader. Station management said it’s “improper to accept money to push for causes.”

Unlike many of her fellow journalists, Diane Rehm has a sparkling record at the ballot box, reports The Washingtonian.

NPR’s Scott Simon told the Yale Daily News he will dance in The Nutcracker in December with the Austin Ballet, complete with tutu.

New at Hearing Voices: photos, stories and audio from writer/producer Nancy Updike’s trip to the West Bank.

Smaller noncommercial broadcasters reject digital radio as “another business that supports the status quo,” reports Wired.

The FCC has approved the front-running technology for digital radio, known as IBOC, but it dismissed or delayed action on several concerns raised by pubcasters.

Zwerdling hopes his bosses will reverse their decision to end his job — and so do dozens of colleagues.

On Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon interviews Nic Harcourt, host of KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic. Live performances from the show are compiled on a new album, Sounds Eclectic Too.

Columnist Michelle Malkin is unsympathetic to pubradio translators knocked off the air by expanding religiocasters. “It’s time for the secular hogs of the public airwaves to stop squealing,” she writes in the Philadelphia Daily News.

Electronic Media lists PBS President Pat Mitchell among the “most powerful women in television.” Among the 26 are Judith McHale, c.o.o. of Discovery Communications, numerous other chief execs, and Oprah Winfrey.