Religion & Ethics Newsweekly will offer live coverage and analysis of the Pope’s address to the UN General Assembly on Friday, to be broadcast on the digital channel PBS World. The public affairs program, based in D.C. and produced by WNET in New York, has been airing special reports on the Pope’s U.S. visit.

Community radio station KZYX in Mendocino County, Calif., has ousted a newspaper editor from her weekly public affairs program because of her on-air advocacy, reports the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. K.C. Meadows, editor of the Ukiah Daily Journal, has helped lead a citizen campaign to repeal the county’s liberal laws on personal marijuana use. The issue is on the June primary election ballot, and Meadows’ advocacy violated KZYX’s policy to provide a non-partisan forum, according to the station.

The WYPR board of directors abruptly adjourned its public meeting yesterday after Chair Barbara Bozzuto declared the firing of former talk show host Marc Steiner “will not be undone.” Steiner’s supporters, who packed the meeting room of a Baltimore church, booed her down, according to the Save WYPR blog and Baltimore Sun.

WQED in Pittsburgh is helping Bermuda develop its first public television station, Community Information TV, run by the Government of Bermuda. CITV, which first went on the air in October 2007, offers public affairs, culture, history, science and health shows, produced with assistance from WQED staff. Go to CITV’s website here.

The Supreme Court will soon consider a complaint by Fox against the FCC about a proposed indecency fine, leaving the commission in legal limbo until the Court hands down a decision — its first indecency ruling in three decades — probably early next year, the Los Angeles Times reports. The FCC and broadcasters have gone back and forth in federal court since the 2003 Bono ruling and early 2004 Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction ushered in a more aggressive campaign against on-air naughtiness. Pubcasters have taken a number of steps to stay out of harm’s way, but at least one, KCSM in San Mateo, got caught in the FCC’s dragnet.

Click and Clack’s As the Wrench Turns, the animated TV version of NPR’s popular Car Talk, has its first 10 hour-long episodes in the can and is ready to debut in PBS primetime in July. The idea for an animated Car Talk series floated around for years but picked up momentum — and crucially, funding — after Paula Kerger arrived as president of PBS.

A TV studio at the University of Alabama’s Center for Public Television and Radio will be out of commission for months because a faulty sprinkler soaked the place after a fire alarm went off on Thursday, the Tuscaloosa News reported.

Is the online radio audience growing or flat? Researchers behind The Infinite Dial 2008: Radio’s Digital Platforms chart an “all-time high” in weekly listenership, but marketing strategist Mark Ramsey says the data “sure seems weird.”

The Columbus Social Media Cafe, an endeavor to engage local bloggers in the creation of Web 2.0 public media that benefits the communities served by WOSU-TV/FM/AM, is planning a new website. Intended to be an “agora for information and communication,” the website will aggregate content created by and about Central Ohio, creating a “loop of communication” between topics discussed on the Web and covered by the WOSU stations. Elements of the site, and video footage of the most recent Social Media Cafe meeting, are posted here. WOSU’s Susan Meier discusses the ideas and how-to elements of the project here.

The Public Radio Exchange has received a MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, an annual $500,000 grant awarded only to previous MacArthur grantees with budgets of less than $2.5 million. “By gathering and distributing new programming and using technological innovation to expand content choices, PRX is leading public radio to become more interactive, diverse, and participatory,” the foundation said today in its release. PRX explains that it will use the money to upgrade its web service, encourage the development of new PRX content and create a capital reserve that will support the creation of an independent board of directors.

Public TV’s lobbying unit, the Association of Public Television Stations, said today it expects to hire a new president by September. The Boston-based search firm of Issacson, Miller, which specializes in nonprofit leadership posts, will conduct a nationwide hunt. Jane Gruenebaum, a onetime congressional staffer who was executive director of the League of Women Voters and c.o.o. of the Center for Policy Alternatives, is heading the search, working with Gail Gregory. In March, John Lawson left APTS after leading it for seven years.

This year’s slate of Webby nominees includes thirteen different public broadcasting websites and mobile services, as well as PBS Kids Sprout, the pubTV- affiliated digital channel. NPR Music’s Project Song received three nominations in the online film and video division, and Frontline/World received three. Nominees in the Web division include Seattle music station KEXP, World Without Oil, and political coverage on NPR.org. Voting for the Webby People’s Voice Awards closes on May 1; winners will be announced May 6.

A documentary about David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and continues to makes in-character appearances 40 years later, premieres tomorrow in Pittsburgh. The doc, made on $4,000 by a 26-year-old who forged a friendship with Newell three years ago, follows the speedy delivery man–in and out of costume–through a summer of engagements, including one on a Mr. Rogers’ replica set in Baltimore.

Adobe has released its new, free Flash-based video player, which includes content from PBS and the Bay Area’s KQED. Viewers can stream or download video, and they can watch while online or offline. The current business model relies on ads attached to videos, but Adobe may develop other models, such as paying to download or rent, reports CNET. Other content partners include CBS, MTV and Scripps Networks.

Frontline‘s “Bush’s War” has garnered more than 1.5 million online views of all or part of the program. The website features an interactive timeline of the “war on terror” that incorporates 175 embedded video clips. Frontline recently built a new, full-screen video player with a grant from the MacArthur Foundation. [See New York Times story on the website here and Current’s story on Frontline‘s war coverage here.]