People

Center for Public Integrity and Investigative News Network each grow by two, and other comings and goings in public media

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The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative newsroom, has hired William Gray and Eleanor Bell. Television producer Gray joins as media relations specialist, focusing on increasing the visibility and impact of CPI’s journalism. Gray previously worked at C-SPAN as an operations producer handling breaking news and live and overnight coverage for the cable broadcaster’s three networks. He also created and curates the Floor Charts archive, which tracks and tags props, charts and posters used by politicians. Bell joins as multimedia editor.

System/Policy

PBS proposes video-on-demand service in FY15 budget

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PBS’s fiscal year 2015 draft budget includes the launch of a Membership Video on Demand service that will generate revenue by drawing on the network’s expansive library of content. MVOD members will get exclusive access to on-demand PBS videos, according to a budget document acquired by Current. “This is a critical product to help stations drive membership of the growing digital audience,” it said. The service will be integrated with PBS’s COVE video platform, and the public broadcaster anticipates hiring additional staff for the project. The budget proposal, now awaiting comment from stations, also requests a 2.5 percent increase in assessments from stations.

Programs/Content

CPB ombud criticizes KUNM’s handling of plagiarism charges

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The handling of plagiarism charges at New Mexico’s KUNM-FM drew criticism from CPB Ombudsman Joel Kaplan, who weighed in on the issue in an April 24 report. The charges were first made public by former KUNM reporter Tristan Ahtone, who left the Albuquerque station in March over what he cited as the station’s failure to respond to a fellow reporter’s plagiarism, as recounted in an April 15 story in the Santa Fe Reporter. In an email to his superiors at KUNM that a Santa Fe journalist later forwarded to Kaplan, Ahtone accused KUNM leadership of hiding three instances of suspected plagiarism from listeners. One of the stories was published through the Fronteras reporting desk, which covers the Southwest. Ahtone refused to participate in ethics training courses the station mandated for all staff, writing that the training “serves merely as the Potemkin Village to bolster this station’s attempt at credibility.”

CPB’s Kaplan also found the station’s response lacking.