Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has pulled out of the debate this coming Monday (March 19) at Oregon Public Broadcasting, the network has announced. The debate sponsors — OPB, the Oregon Republican Party and the Washington Times — said that a Romney campaign aide confirmed the candidate will be in Illinois on March 19, the eve of that state’s primary. Organizers are still talking with the other candidates. The only confirmed debate participant so far is former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. The debate, which would be the first produced at a public broadcasting station, was sanctioned by the Republican National Committee in October 2011.

Five suspects, considered among the “most sophisticated hackers in the world” by authorities, were arrested and charged Tuesday (March 6) in Manhattan federal court with conspiracy in connection with computer attacks last year against PBS, Fox Broadcasting Co. and Sony Pictures Entertainment, reports CNN. A sixth suspect pleaded guilty in August to computer hacking and other crimes and has been cooperating with government investigators. On May 29, 2011, techs at PBS.org as well as the NewsHour and Frontline websites spent hours regaining control during the cyberattack (Current, June 13, 2011). The hack exposed contact information for hundreds of PBS staffers, stations, producers and press, as well as several internal PBS databases.

NPR has hired Todd Mundt as editorial director for NPR Digital Services In his new position, Mundt will help stations develop digital content strategies and oversee news training offered to them. He now serves as v.p. and chief content officer at Louisville Public Media in Kentucky, p.d. of the licensee’s news/talk station and its local host for Morning Edition. Before joining Louisville’s three-station complex, he was director of content and media at Iowa Public Radio, chief content officer for Michigan Public Media in Ann Arbor and host of an NPR-distributed talk program, The Todd Mundt Show. Mundt is chair of the Public Radio Program Directors Association and has served on the Public Media Platform advisory council.

A media-ethics forum in Seattle will hold a hearing later this month to consider an antiabortion group’s charge that all-news KUOW-FM aired an inaccurate report about the group last year and fell short of correcting its missteps. The complaint by the Vitae Foundation centers on an April 2011 story by reporter Meghan Walker about Vitae’s billboard campaign publicizing  YourOptions.com, a website that discusses what women can do about unplanned pregnancies. The story began with remarks by a Planned Parenthood rep but, as Vitae official Deborah Stokes objected, the reporter didn’t contact Vitae for comment. Walker said she regretted not contacting Vitae but stood by the story as accurate and balanced.

An investigation of a mine accident in Idaho by the Northwest News Network, a collaboration of public radio stations in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, has prompted a federal agency to change how it handles documents regarding mine safety. Last fall, N3 reporter Jessica Robinson learned that a federal geologist’s 2008 report about unstable rock conditions at the Lucky Friday Mine in Mullan, Idaho, had never been sent to Helca Mining, which operates the mine. In April 2011, a miner died in a tunnel collapse at Lucky Friday. In November Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, asked the Mine Safety and Health Administration to review its protocols for forwarding safety information to mine operators.

CPB ombudsman Joel Kaplan has urged WAMU-FM in Washington, D.C., to release more information about a gathering of major donors and station journalists that prompted the Feb. 22 resignation of WAMU News Director Jim Asendio. The “Meet the Producers Breakfast” featured a panel discussion among WAMU reporters and producers for an audience of about 30 donors who had recently increased their annual contributions to at least $1,000. Asendio said he resigned because he believed the event had breached an ethical firewall insulating station journalists from funders. In Kaplan’s comments, posted March 2 on CPB.org, the ombudsman did not explicitly condemn the event but wrote that the issue “goes to the heart of the station’s ethics.”

Two broadcasters who were part of the history of WHYY in Philadelphia have died. John B. Roberts, one of the founding directors of WHYY in 1957, died March 8 of a spinal infection at his home in the retirement community of Rydal Park in suburban Philadelphia. He was 94. Roberts also founded the Temple University public radio station, WRTI-FM, now classical and jazz, in 1953, and taught communications at Temple from 1946 to 1988. Paul Gluck, former WHYY-TV station manager and now on the Temple faculty, told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “For people like me, who worked as practicing journalists and transitioned into the academic world, he is a near-perfect role model.”

ITVS is launching the Living Docs Project today (March 12) in partnership with Mozilla, the Tribeca Film Institute, BAVC, and the Center for Social Media. The online project “brings together documentary filmmakers, developers, funders, and the audience to make the case for a new kind of storytelling on the web,” ITVS said in the announcement. “The web has given documentary filmmakers a powerful mechanism to distribute their films, but we have only scratched the surface of how it can change storytelling. The Living Docs Project sees the web as a canvas on which new types of documentaries can be told.”

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR foreign correspondent based in Jerusalem, is the latest recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award from CPB, which recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to public radio. CPB said in a statement that it selected Garcia-Navarro “for her in-depth coverage of world events, particularly from volatile regions — a hallmark of her reporting — and in honor of all international correspondents and journalists who undertake great risks to report on the people and cultures impacted by conflict.” “Covering foreign news has become more dangerous, expensive and complicated than ever but it has never been more vital,” said Garcia-Navarro.

Lou Morin, director of marketing and public relations for Maine Public Broadcasting, has left the network, reports Down East: The Magazine of Maine (second item). His departure came after Morin released to Down East proprietary Arbitron ratings estimates for radio stations in Portland and Bangor, according to the site, and suggested that the figures may not be accurate; Morin retracted that release in a comment here. Arbitron responded in a comment here.

Elsie Garner, president of WTVI, tells the Charlotte Observer that there’s a “dire possibility” the station may have to close down — perhaps as soon as June — if a planned takeover by Central Piedmont Community College can’t go forward. Under that plan, the college would use WTVI as a new base for journalism and videography courses, and to develop a digital media curriculum. But to do that, the college says, it needs $357,000 from Mecklenburg County to cover the merger and around $800,000 over the next four years to replace equipment. County Manager Harry Jones said in a memo to commissioners last week: “I consider this proposal to be a government-funded bailout of a failed business model, and believe county taxpayers should not pay.

Two years after selling WXEL-FM in Palm Beach, Fla., for $3.85 million, Barry University has agreed to sell its public-TV sister station for $1.44 million. The buyer is the WXEL Public Broadcasting Corp., a nonprofit set up by the TV station’s present executives. WXEL’s 15-year custody by the Catholic university in Miami Shores began in 1997 when the school rescued the Palm Beach FM/TV combo from perilous fiscal condition. The stations attracted unsuccessful sale contracts, bids or at least inquiries from New York’s WNET, the Palm Beach County school board, competing Miami station WPBT and a longtime suitor, Community Broadcast Foundation of Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast.

Broadcasting giant Barry Diller spoke up in defense of the new subscription streaming TV service Aereo, which his company is backing, during a panel at the SXSW Film Festival Sunday (March 11). He’s looking forward to battling several broadcasters including WNET in New York and PBS, who have filed a copyright infringement suit against the service, which says it uses “proprietary remote antenna and DVR” technology to enable subscribers, for $12 a month, to watch over-the-air broadcasts on their smart phones, tablets and computers. “It’s going to be a great fight,” Diller said in Austin. “This is not some evil thing,” Diller said of Aereo, which is set to launch in the New York Market on Thursday (March 14).