“In the usual custom,” writes the international Follow the Media blog, “the autumn schedule for French public television is announced in a gala Paris press conference hosted by the president of France Télévisions.” This is the season everything changes there. French President Nicolas Sarkozy had made reorganization of pubTV there a priority after his 2007 election. At that time Sarkozy described his vision for French public broadcasting as creating a “national champion” in the model of the UK’s BBC, the blog says. Critics, including former French pubTV President de Carlois, railed against what they saw as government interference with the public airwaves.

Independent Lens has announced that actress America Ferrera — aka “Ugly Betty” — is this season’s host for the popular documentary series. Her portrayal of Betty Suarez on the ABC comedy has earned her an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as ALMA and Imagen Awards. The new season begins Oct. 19.

Columnist Bob Davis of the Anniston (Ala.) Star misses Bill Moyers on PBS. In his Sunday (Sept. 5) column, Davis recalls a long-ago trip to Marshall, Texas, to see the city’s holiday decorations. Lights, lights everywhere. “Then came the capper, the ultimate, at least for a news junkie like me,” Davis writes. “It was a string of lights in the shape of one of Marshall’s most famous sons, Bill Moyers, the journalist and former Johnson administration spokesman. The figure even had small circles of Christmas lights in the shape of Moyer’s eyeglasses.” No photo, so you’ll just have to enjoy that mental image of yours.

A new 13-week series of forums on ethics on an international scale begins this month on MHz Worldview, the channel announced Friday (Sept. 3). Global Ethics Forum is a weekly show produced by the Carnegie Ethics Studio, a division of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Experts will “navigate the murky moral landscapes presented by global politics, development, and international business,” the announcement said.

More than 6,000 children so far have turned out for the “Reach for the Sky” project during the month of Ramadan in Abu Dhabi, co-sponsored by Sesame Street, the Emirates News Agency said this week (Sept. 2). The public TV characters interacted with the kids for the science-based outreach. “We noticed the children’s enthusiasm to learn more about outer space while watching them working hard on making their own rockets and assembling and operating robots,” said Dr. Abdullah Ismail Abdullah, Senior Advisor to the Emirates Foundation for Philanthropy science, technology and environment program, which runs nightly at the Marina Mall Abu Dhabi throughout the Islamic holy month.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, with its partners Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television and the University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism school, has distributed more than 20 major reports to news outlets serving more than 2 million residents in the state and surrounding areas in just over one year, reports American Journalism Review. One big collaborative project in February examined the underreporting of sexual assaults on college campuses. That was a joint project among the Investigative News Network, the Center for Public Integrity, National Public Radio and five nonprofit investigative centers around the country. “It’s been an amazing first year full of more challenges and more successes than I could have imagined,” said Andy Hall, center director.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie put forth legislation today (Sept. 3) to end the state’s 40 years of financial support for the New Jersey Network by year’s end, reports the Star-Ledger newspaper in Newark. Under the plan, the state treasurer would take inventory of the network’s assets and determine how to sell or transfer them. This would be done by Nov. 1. It would also allow the treasurer to negotiate directly with an existing public broadcasting outlet and to accept proposals for the sale or transfer. Dudley Burdge, spokesman for the Communications Workers of America, the union representing most of NJN’s staff, told the paper that the plan “will be extremely destructive to the network and especially to its news and public affairs programs.”

Spanish network Vme, carried by many public TV stations, on Wednesday (Sept. 1) launched Vme Kids, the only around-the-clock channel for preschoolers who speak Spanish as the main language at home, according to a press release. It’ll run on AT&T’s U-verse channel 3058, with additional distributors to be announced.

PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler is digging out from three weeks’ worth of letters and emails, and has come up for air to ask the eternal question, what does an article on the New Yorker on the billionaire Koch brothers have to do with Nova?

The City of Tucson is considering merging its government television station with Arizona Public Media, according to the Arizona Daily Star. The paper says that Arizona Public Media initiated the merger talks. The arrangement would call for the city to pay Arizona Public Media $600,000 yearly to produce content similar to what the city-owned Channel 12 produces now. The content could run both on Channel 12 and on any Arizona Public Media channel. Most equipment and all employees of Channel 12 would be transferred to Arizona Public Media, and the city would pay it for services. That would create a savings of $300,000 from Channel 12’s $900,000 annual budget.

The interim director of the New Jersey Network is departing as of Sept. 17, reports the Bergen (N.J.) Record. State lawmakers are considering the state’s relationship with the network and its nonprofit foundation (Current, July 6, 2010). Hearings are set for Sept. 14, 16 and 23. “I don’t know whether he’ll be appearing,” Ronnie Weyl, a spokeswoman for the network, told the paper. Janice Selinger, a now is acting chief operating officer, will assume Blumenthal’s duties. “Howard was hired for a six- to nine-month engagement, and we are deeply grateful to him that he gave us a full year of his time and talent,” Stephanie Hoopes Halpin, commissioner of the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority, said in a statement.

Twenty episodes of Berenstain Bears cartoons will soon air on South Dakota Public Television — in the Lakota language. The Associated Press is reporting today (Aug. 30) that the shows begin running this fall. The AP says it’s the first time in the United States that a cartoon series has been translated to a Native language and widely distributed, according to Wilhelm Meya, executive director of Lakota Language Consortium, a nonprofit that partnered with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to co-produce the Lakota version of the series. (Click here to hear numbers spoken in the Lakota language.)

The Brownsville Herald is reporting that Harlingen, Texas, PBS affiliate KMBH did not run Frontline’s “Law & Disorder” last week (Aug. 25), which focused on questionable police shootings in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The paper cited “offensive language” as the problem. Diane Buxton, Frontline spokesperson, told Current the show provided an early feed to accommodate stations that wished to make the two minor language edits. John Ross, KMBH interim general manager, did not return a call from Current.

Indie rock college students aren’t the only Houston music lovers objecting to Rice University’s decision to sell KTRU, the Houston Chronicle reports. The 50,000-watt underground music station on 91.7 FM, operated by Rice students for four decades, will adopt an all-classical format once the University of Houston’s KUHF completes the purchase, but the station’s signal fades in Houston’s southern and western suburbs. “It seems odd that they would degrade their (classical music) signal and alienate a lot of their listeners,” a KUHF listener tells the Chronicle. Like many pubcasters undergoing signal expansion, KUHF also plans to simulcast its all-classical service as an HD Radio channel of its more powerful, legacy signal on 88.7 FM.