Dan Savage erupts over a Garrison Keillor column about modern families and gay parenting. “These couples deserve our gratitude and support,” Savage writes. “What they don’t deserve is a rich, old hypocrite insinuating that they’re more interested in their fussy hairdos and over-decorated apartments than they are in raising their kids.”

“All I’m saying is, if PBS has to tart itself up as something it’s not in order to attract donors, isn’t that a de facto admission that their regular schedule isn’t enough of a draw to justify their existence?” A Huffington Post column by Eric Williams drew nearly two dozen comments from blog readers eager to rip up public TV pledge programs.

“Years will pass before another program poses a serious challenge to this landmark,” writes Tom Shales, Washington Post TV critic, in a review of Planet Earth, an 11-part BBC series that debuted last night on Discovery.

March spreads a special strain of madness among PBS viewers.

Paste magazine looks at Bob Boilen and his show, NPR’s web-only All Songs Considered: “What is a fresh sound? Who the heck knows? But I look for something that has a vitality, that has a sense of creativity to it, maybe that’s breaking new bounds—or something that just feels great.”

The New York Times previews the TV debut of This American Life: “Mr. Glass was greeted as a conquering rock star in various American cities during a recent live tour, and Showtime is hoping that the rabid, embedded fan base of “This American Life” — as well as the tsunami of media coverage generated by reporters who love to write about someone who actually tells real, live stories — will give it visibility in a cluttered television universe.”

NPR, Clear Channel and other broadcasting groups filed challenges yesterday to the Copyright Royalty Board’s ruling on webcast fees, reports AP. NPR also plans to take the matter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C.

Assignment Zero, a web-powered collaboration between citizen and professional journalists, recently began assigning stories to volunteer reporters, according to the New York Times.

PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler reports and comments on criticism that The War, the Ken Burns documentary series debuting in September, ignores the contributions and sacrifices made by Hispanic-Americans during World War II. “[W]hat interests me most among the critical public statements, and the questions and criticisms raised by viewers in letters to me, is whether, during the six years of production, anyone did actually think about the Hispanic veterans,” Getler writes.

Curious George, the top-rated PBS Kids show, is having trouble selling all of its underwriting slots, according to Advertising Age. Could part of the problem be that PBS prohibits product placement in its programs?

WNYC, Public Radio International and other partners plan to produce a morning show that will go up against NPR’s Morning Edition and pursue a younger audience, reports the New York Times. “We have a vision of what we think is needed, and we think we are the right people to do it,” says WNYC President Laura Walker. (More details from WNYC, via PRPD’s blog.)

Some Friday levity: This video puts a Ken Burns spin on The War that Divided NBC’s “The Office” and its fans. (Audio mildly NSFW.)

Independent producer Barrett Golding laments the state of public radio conferences in a Web 2.0 world: “Once there was a time-honored tradition of spending conference nights genuinely interacting with real folk, i.e., chasing hookers and hootch. Nowadays, everyone runs back to their hotel rooms to blog, stream, cast, and flickr.”

Ira Glass of This American Life talks about the TV version of his radio show in a chat on the Washington Post‘s website: “This week we just finished a six-city tour . . . and in some of the cities, when I’d ask the audience ‘were you worried when you heard we were doing a TV show?’ they’d ROAR back yes. In Minnesota our director Chris Wilcha joked it’s like when Dylan went electric and a guy in the audience yelled ‘Judas!'”

Jake Shapiro has blogged the transcript of an e-mail interview with Current in which he discusses efforts to create a digital distribution system for public media. “I think some version of it will happen, and soon,” he says. “The question is whether it will be a truly collaborative venture or something just one or two players begin together.”