The Seattle Weekly looks again at KCTS’s precarious financial situation, and rants against the “sordid tricks” the station turns to at pledge-time.

Burton Paulu passed away March 8 at the age of 92, report The Star Tribune and The Minnesota Daily. Paulu directed KUOM in Minneapolis, led the National Association of Educational Broadcasters and pioneered in educational radio.

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) takes issue with NPR’s coverage of a bombing in Israel earlier this month.

“Let’s call it what it is: It’s ‘state television,’ with all that implies,” writes Roger Smith in a harsh critique of public TV at TomPaine.com (a website edited by John Moyers–son of Bill).

PBS is negotiating deals for distribution of its kids and primetime programming via cable’s video-on-demand platforms, according to Deron Triff, PBS’s v.p. of digital ventures, in an interview with Tracy Swedlow’s Interactive TV Today.

Newsday‘s Noel Holston compares public TV pledge drives to black-velvet Elvis portraits.

More public radio stations than ever could change hands this year, reports an Associated Press article spurred by KQED’s recent acquisition in Sacramento.

Mister Rogers was one of the first programs that I can remember watching. I was, of course, part of the show’s target demographic back then. I can’t recall much from my preschool years, but I do know that I loved the trolley, I loved the neighborhood and I loved Fred Rogers.Like many early loves, it faded with age and distance. I moved on to programs intended for older kids: flashier, action-oriented, violent in the ways that caregivers and watchdogs lament and children adore. For the most part, I forgot about Fred and his neighborhood, reminded only on occasion by the parodies that proliferated in the ’80s as yesterday’s innocents grew into sarcasm and despair.

Frontline‘s producers objected to similarities between their PBS public affairs documentary series and the ABC reality show, Profiles From the Front Line, reports the Boston Globe. [scroll down to third story]

“What Mr. Rogers could have taught Michael Jackson” in Sunday’s New York Times.

J.J. Yore, new v.p. of programming at Marketplace Productions, hopes to collaborate with L.A. station KPCC on projects such as a series about pop culture, reports the L.A. Times.

The Washington Post profiles Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica’s Democracy Now!: “Her Edward R. Murrow comes always with a twist of Emma Goldman.” Goodman was also in the news when she was arrested at a anti-war protest at the White House. Pro-peace reporting from Goodman and others increased Pacifica’s take in its latest round of fund drives. Not surprisingly, Pacifica’s news probably soothes more minds than it changes, notes a Houston Chronicle article.

Wielding a grim financial analysis of public TV by a big-name consulting firm, CPB has begun a campaign to glue together a consensus supporting three initiatives to end the stagnation: catching up with other nonprofits in attracting “major gifts” of $1,000 or more from donors; improving station efficiency, especially by consolidating operations; using program research more effectively and taking other unspecified steps to re-examine public TV’s “approach to national programming.” CPB President Bob Coonrod and Chief Operating Officer Kathleen Cox discussed the initiatives in a Current Q&A. Coonrod said the CPB Board called for the consensus building in its statement of objectives adopted in fall 2002.

Fred Rogers occupied a quiet corner of the tumultuous television landscape, but his influence was profound and borne of the kindness, love and honesty he inspired in people.

The FCC changed the dates of this month’s filing windows for translator applications. (PDF, Word, text.)