David Liroff, the WGBH v.p. who’s already a prominent national voice in system planning, got that job officially this week. CPB hired him as senior v.p., system development and media strategy, overseeing station grant policy, technology investments and other wonky important matters. He succeeds Andy Russell, who moved to PBS this month.

A newly released report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (79-page PDF, see pages 6-7 and 44-52) found little to support the view of Rep. Ginny Browne-Waite (and AIM) that public broadcasting has become a “billionaire” from merchandising deals. The Florida Republican made the claim in 2005 before asking for the GAO study. Few programs generate back-end revenues, GAO explains. The successful ones pay license fees of only 2.5 to 7.5 percent of merchandise retail prices, anyway, and neither PBS nor CPB is likely to get much of that because they don’t make big front-end investments. That’s pretty much what Current reported in 1995 when politicians claimed Barney was making PBS rich.

Doc Searls shares his thoughts about the possible merger of XM and Sirius: “I don’t care how diverse the programming becomes, it’s still coming from too few companies. When the choice gets down to one, I guarantee that programming will have a homogenous quality to it.” One programmer sees some upsides. “Public/community radio, with its hook of no commercials, will inevitably gain from a pool of listeners who won’t be as excited about paying $20 a month for programming that changes from when they signed up,” writes Ernesto Aguilar, p.d. of KPFT-FM in Houston.

The news director at KSFR-FM in Santa Fe, N.M., has told his staff not to use nationally published news stories that rely on unnamed U.S. officials as sources. “What we have suspected and talked about at length before is now becoming clear,” wrote Bill Dupuy. “‘High administration officials speaking on the condition of anonymity,’ ‘Usually reliable Washington sources,’ and others of the like were behind the publicity that added credibility to the need to go to war against Afghanistan and Iraq.” Numerous blogs have picked up on the story and praised Dupuy’s decision.

A draft of a long-awaited FCC report suggests that the Congress could ask the commission to regulate broadcast violence without violating the Constitution, according to the Los Angeles Times. A bipartisan group of lawmakers asked the FCC in 2004 to look into whether it could constitutionally regulate such content; unlike with indecency, the Supreme Court has never ruled that the FCC could regulate on-screen violence.

Blogger Dave Winer complains about the spam he’s received since donating to New York’s WNYC. “Of course I have asked to be removed from the spam list, and how tacky is it to ask for a pledge less than a month after getting a gift of $100.”

NPR has convened a meeting of high-profile bloggers and Web 2.0 thinkers in Washington, D.C., this week to discuss the network’s future in social media. Not surprisingly, there’s plenty of online, on-the-scene coverage from this crowd. NPR’s Andy Carvin has notes and videos on his blog. Robert Paterson: “The theme is becoming the new reality of the shift from Consuming to Creating.” Doc Searls: “Seems to me that public broadcasting is way too long on policy and bureaucracy and way too short on engagement.” (Searls is taking pictures, too.) Jeff Jarvis: “NPR should be a network of networks.”

Poynter’s website presents MP3s of conversations with Corey Flintoff, an NPR newscaster and reporter who recently has been filing stories from Iraq. “Flintoff says journalists should be cautious of recent reports about Iran’s role in the war as well,” writes Leann Frola. “He says he’s skeptical of the ‘so called’ evidence that Iran is providing roadside bombs that are killing soldiers like the ones he interviewed. You just don’t know when you can’t see it for yourself, he says.”

Frontline producer Raney Aronson chatted with Washington Post readers about the public affairs show’s state-of-journalism doc, “News War: Secrets, Sources & Spin.” The program, the first segment in the four-part “News War” series, debuted Tuesday and is available online.

CPB released a request for proposals this week for stations interested in participating in its community engagement initiative, a two-year collaboration between the corporation and the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, a community organization consulting group based in Bethesda, Md. The project will offer participating stations–which must already be pursuing community engagement efforts–coaching, ongoing support and access to the Harwood Institute’s resources in order to strengthen and expand those efforts. The stations will receive $20,000 to fund their projects and reimbursement for the cost of any travel to workshops. CPB will pick 12 stations of various market and budget sizes and licensee types to participate by March 9.

The corporate restructuring announced this month by Discovery Communications President David Zaslav will likely bring more cuts to its education division, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

While MoveOn.org urges its troops to back “permanent funding and independence from partisan meddling” for pubcasting, media reform activist Jeff Chester wants to see a trust fund only if it supports a “truly noncommercial” system. Such a system would reserve 30 percent of its funds for news and public affairs, air kidvid without commercial underwriting and bring in half of its programs from independent producers. He advises: “We shouldn’t help save ‘Big Bird,’ if all the public is going to get is more of the same of what we have today.” Chester discusses his recommendations in Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy, just published by the New Press.

Former PBS interactive chief Cindy Johanson will join the George Lucas Educational Foundation next week as chief operating officer. The new position reports to Milton Chen, executive director and former education topper at San Francisco’s KQED. Lucas, the director of Star Wars, said he wants Johanson’s help in making the foundation’s Edutopia.org website “the best archive of films, articles and tools for creating successful schools.”

House Telecom Chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) told pubTV managers yesterday that he’ll support their call for satellite TV operators to carry the digital TV signals of local pubTV stations. APTS wants DirecTV and EchoStar to carry their local signals if it carries those of any stations. APTS achieved a digital carriage agreement with large cable operators in 2005 after seeking federal action. A deal with smaller operators is expected soon, APTS said.

National Association of Broadcasters has asked the XM and Sirius satellite radio companies to stop using tiny FM transmitters to connect their satellite receivers with the audio systems in subscribers’ cars. NPR also has objected to the gizmos.