Nice Above Fold - Page 978

  • 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.
  • New media staffers at Boston’s WBUR-FM have created a weblog devoted to the war against Iraq.
  • Chicago police believe that Fe Corizon Cruz-Fabunan, the retired WTTW finance manager accused of embezzling $260,000 from the station, is on the lam, reports Chicago Business.
  • John Willis, WGBH’s new national production chief, is returning to the U.K. to direct BBC’s Factual and Learning programs, reports the Guardian. In a February speech to documentarians, he said an “infection of entertainment” dilutes news programs in the U.S.
  • Sesame Street launches its 34th season on PBS today. The long-running series is as “creative and vibrant as ever,” writes Lynne Heffley in an LA Times review. Heffley also reviews
  • The New York Times reports on how war coverage has altered the TV habits of viewers in Millville, N.J.
  • Corey Flintoff name-checked in the Apr. 5 Zippy comic strip.