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.

Public radio station representatives endorsed this resolution by voice vote during NPR’s annual Members Meeting of stations, May 3, 2005. The meeting lacked the quorum necessary to adopt a proposed official resolution. The proposal, offered by Tim Emmons, g.m. of Northern Public Radio in DeKalb, Ill., responded to recent news coverage about CPB activities promoting conservative programming on public TV. Whereas it is the statutory and historical role of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to serve as a firewall between partisan politics and public broadcasting; and Whereas the Public Broadcasting Act specifically directs CPB to act “in ways that will most effectively assure the maximum freedom of the public telecommunications entities and systems from interference with, or control of, program content or other activities”; and Whereas CPB has in the past respected the First Amendment rights of broadcasters and deferred to the professional judgments of journalists; and Whereas the Public Broadcasting Act requires CPB to distribute program funds by grant rather than by contract specifically to limit CPB interference in the editorial decision-making process of public broadcasting program producers and stations; and Whereas the Public Broadcasting Act requires CPB to create and annually update a plan for the development of public telecommunications services and consult with interested parties when so doing; and Whereas CPB has recently dismissed its President and CEO under uncertain conditions; and Whereas the CPB board recently appointed two ombudsmen without consulting with the public broadcasting system, raising legitimate concerns of an institutionalized process for potential interference in content, and Whereas, such a process within a funding agency is fundamentally inconsistent with the principles of ombudsmen in reference to news organizations; It is therefore resolved that: CPB should follow statutory requirements and do nothing to diminish the firewall between the Federal funds appropriated by the Congress and the public broadcast programming it funds; and CPB should follow statutory requirements and refrain from interfering in constitutionally protected content decisions; and CPB should follow statutory requirements and, before making changes in funding priorities, should engage in a system-wide consultation about the priorities of public radio and defer to the reasonable and legitimate choices of broadcast professionals to build services of value within the local communities they serve.

From a string of news sensations over the past month journalists and progressive activists have discerned the picture of a CPB greatly in need of reform. A May 2 front-page story in the New York Times charged that CPB Chair Ken Tomlinson conducted his own outside review of Now with Bill Moyers, worked to kill a legislative proposal last year that would have required more radio and TV vets on the CPB Board and has made clear that a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Asst. Secretary of State Patricia Harrison, is his preferred choice for the vacant CPB presidency.

CPB Board President Ken Tomlinson conducted his own outside review of Now with Bill Moyers, worked to kill a legislative proposal last year that would have required more radio and TV vets on the CPB Board and has made clear that a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Asst. Secretary of State Patricia Harrison, is his preferred choice for the vacant CPB president post, the New York Times reports.