In his latest column, PBS ombudsman Michael Getler (right) focuses on controversies surrounding the recent American Experience miniseries on Native Americans, “We Shall Remain.” Getler addresses what he calls a “detailed, non-stop, frontal attack on the program” that arrived in the form of a May 10 letter to PBS head Paula Kerger from a small group calling itself the Wounded Knee Victims and Veterans Association. Kerger had earlier responded to another letter from three tribes in Massachusetts also voicing complaints on the programs.

Don’t forget to register for the National Parks: America’s Best Idea StorySharing webinar tomorrow. Join the National Center for Media Engagement (formerly NCO) and WETA online at 2 p.m. Thursday for a tutorial on how to use the StoryShare tool on your station’s site. Here’s what Rocky Mountain PBS is doing with it.

The theme from Sesame Street is one of the tunes used to psychologically pressure detainees in U.S. custody. The revelation emerged in a Reuters story on the work of the Zero dB (for zero decibels) project that’s part of the British legal charity Reprieve. It represents dozens of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The project is working toward a ban on the use of loud music on detainees, which it characterizes as torture.

The city manager of Morgantown, W.Va., is proposing a resolution asking Comcast to restore West Virginia PBS to its original channel location. The station recently shifted from an analog to a digital tier as part of a 2005 agreement between APTS and the cable industry. Similiar moves also prompted complaints in states including Illinois, Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. Current is following the story.

Broadcast hardware technologists are considering standard specs for a “wrapper” for digital video files to give producers an archive-friendly video production workflow, says Nan Rubin of WNET in her paper “Preserving Digital Public Television: Is There Life After Broadcasting?,” published in International Preservation News this month. As an example of a streamlined workflow, she cites the procedures developed for WNET’s new five-days-a-week Worldfocus. Rubin coordinated a pubTV preservation planning project for the Library of Congress.

Rick Bayless, chef and host of Mexico — One Plate at a Time on PBS, tweets recipes on Twitter. Yes, 140 characters at a time. So when The Chicago Tribune interviewed Bayless, it seemed fitting to stick with that format. An example of a Bayless recipe tweet: “wrap papaya n serrano ham. Grill fish; baste: puree cnd chipotle+honey. Fry garlic in OO, mash in bl beans. Grill #cake+ van ice crm+cajeta.” Yum.

The interactive game elements embedded within video content on the PBS Kids Go! site are increasing visitors to the site. The platform company supplying the technology, Panache, today announced the partnership, which PBS inked in March. Literally within 24 hours after the gaming elements launched, there was a “jaw-dropping” increase in hits, Kevin Dando, director of education and online communications at PBS, told Current. The first series with the video game interactivity include Arthur, Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman, Cyberchase and Wordgirl. The Electric Company and others will be up within a few months, according to Panache’s statement. Interactive clips on the site receive triple the views and longer engagement times than non-interactive videos, it added.

Two pubcasters been named Nieman Fellows for 2010, and will be traveling to Harvard University for a year of study, seminars and special events. WBUR’s Massachusetts statehouse reporter Martha Bebinger will focus on the politics of reducing health-care spending. Lisa Mullins, an anchor and senior producer on Public Radio International’s The World, will assess diplomacy in U.S. foreign policy during the first 16 months of the Obama administration. Administered since 1938 by the Nieman Foundation, this is the oldest and most prestigious midcareer fellowship program for journalists.

The Federal Communications Commission has launched an inquiry into Arbitron’s Portable People Meter, the ratings methodology scheduled to roll-out in the top 50 markets by next summer. The commission is responding to concerns of “broadcasters, media organizations and others” about how the PPM methodology affects ratings of stations targeting minority audiences, according to the notice of public inquiry released yesterday. “I want to emphasize that this proceeding is not about preserving the status quo or inhibiting technological progress,” said Michael Copps, FCC acting chairman, in a statement posted here. “To the contrary, Arbitron should be commended for trying to improve its ratings methodology and for committing significant resources to that effort.”

Marie Antoon has announced plans to retire as executive director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting. “Everything is going so well, it’s a great time to make a change,” she told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. “I believe I’ll take a little mental break and see what happens next.” Under her leadership since 2002, MPB has taken on co-production of the award-winning children’s series Between the Lions, beefed up production of local television and radio programs, and expanded its radio news operation. The MPB Board aims to hire a successor before Antoon’s departure in August.

In the latest Independent, the online mag covering the indie film community, David E. Simpson discusses the challenges of filming overseas. The producer, director and editor’s latest project, the doc Milking the Rhino, was filmed on location in Africa. The film, currently airing on Independent Lens, recently screened at the Boston International Film Festival, and has been winning praise at festivals from Honolulu to Jerusalem.

Kids (well, adults too) will soon be able to interact with Sesame Street characters in video segments thanks to a partnership announced today between Sesame Workshop and Yoostar. According to a press release, the Workshop is the first major children’s content franchise licensed by Yoostar, which allows users to appear in movie and TV scenes with the original actors and share those clips online. The $169.95 system was introduced at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show.

NPR’s Dick Meyer, editorial director for digital media, recently wrote a column listing what he sees as the top 100 English-language novels. Now a Los Angeles Times blogger points out that only three were written by women. It’s “truly astonishing,” writes Carolyn Kellogg, that Meyer’s list overlooked works by luminaries including Flannery O’Connor, Margaret Mitchell, Isak Dinesen, Gertrude Stein, Joyce Carol Oates and Eudora Welty.

The “three nons” (nonpolitical, nonsectarian, noncommercial) have been creating discussion in the system lately–especially the “nonsectarian” point–since the PBS board sent the Station Services Committee’s membership recommendations back out for comment in April. Now The Washington Post is reporting that D.C. pubcaster WHUT has told the Archdiocese of Washington that it is dropping “Mass for Shut-Ins,” which has run Sundays since 1996. The Mass has continuously run on some D.C. station for 60 years. “It’s kind of a shock to us,” said Susan Gibbs, archdiocese spokeswoman. “They’ve been great partners of ours for a long time. . . . The Mass is a very local programming that provides a community service.

After a nationwide contest to invent a new character, a little girl who uses a wheelchair and plays a mean game of basketball will be joining the PBS Kids’ show Arthur. A sketch (right) by Minnesota six-grader Connor Gordon was selected from some 8,500 entries. The producers were so impressed with Lydia they decided to write the character into the show instead of having her just visit. “The drawing is fabulous,” Arthur senior producer Jacqui Deegan told The Pioneer Press. “And she just has that spirit of creativity and positive energy. We also love the idea of her being able to play wheelchair basketball.