“I recognize that it’s frustrating for some listeners to have NPR not use the word torture to describe certain practices that seem barbaric,” writes NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard in a column responding to complaints about NPR’s editorial policy. “But the role of a news organization is not to choose sides in this or any debate.” Shepard shares excerpts of a recent memo by David Sweeney, managing editor of NPR News, advising journalists to use euphemisms such as “extreme” or “harsh” interrogation techniques. She proposes that journalists describe rather than characterize controversial methods such as waterboarding: “[R]eporters could say that the U.S.

Citing a “downturn in our sources of revenue,” KCET president Al Jerome has announced the station will discontinue its printed program guide, effective immediately. “This is not an easy decision to make,” Jerome said in a statement. “The magazine has been a part of KCET for nearly 45 years.” KCET is offering KCET eNews in an e-mail form biweekly for programming information and printable listings.

A former Georgia Public Broadcasting finance department employee was indicted Monday on 46 counts of felony theft. Belinda Davis, also known as Belinda Botley Usher, allegedly stole more than $21,000 in a complicated fraud scheme. She was terminated from GPB in February 2008 when the theft was discovered. “We can’t comment on this indictment but I can tell you that we hope for a quick resolution and justice,” station spokeswoman Nancy Zintak told Current. “At GPB our highest priority is to be good stewards of our member support and their trust, and we will continue to do so.”

The kinds of people who like new experiences, enjoy scanning expanded horizons, want to see things from varied perspectives are the people most likely to be PBS viewers, says Margaret Mark.

Swamped by the recession tsunami as they prepared for the new fiscal year, public broadcasters at PBS headquarters; WQLN in Erie, Pa.; two Wisconsin stations and Colorado Public Radio cut budgets to keep their noses above the red ink.Falling by the wayside are established services, including the weeknightly newscast for Delaware viewers broadcast for 46 years by Philadelphia-based WHYY-TV and the local reports on the radio reading service for the blind operated for 16 years by WMFE-FM in Orlando, Fla.Troubled stations typically reported revenues that were down across the board, in underwriting, corporate donations, membership and state government support. With no higher ground for refuge, PBS officials told staffers June 11 that 45 positions, including some vacancies, would be eliminated.

NPR Music and All Things Considered launch a new summer music series today. For “You Must Hear This,” musicians from various genres will pick a favorite piece of music and explain why it inspires them. In the debut segment, Jesse Carmichael and Adam Levine of Maroon 5 reveal their love for Prince’s Purple Rain. “It’s Hendrix, it’s James Brown, it’s outer space, it’s church, it’s sex, it’s heavy metal,” says Levine. “But at the end of the day, it’s just Prince at his absolute best — in my not-so-humble opinion.” Audio from the segment won’t be posted until this evening, but NPR Music has the web page up with music videos for two songs on the record.

Llewellyn King of White House Chronicle, recently experienced a death in the family: The old Sony TV in the living room. But instead of mourning, they’re rejoicing. “The luxury of not having one is palpable,” he writes in The Herald in Monterey County, Calif. “No more arguing about what to watch. No more compulsive, irrational channel surfing. It is bliss.”

CPB awarded a $1.35 million renewal grant to The Takeaway, the morning drive-time show hosted by John Hockenberry and produced at New York’s WNYC. President Pat Harrison says the show is “compelling and participatory” and affirms that public media belongs to “not just some of the people, but all of the people,” in a news release from Public Radio International, co-producer and distributor. The Takeaway radio show and website, picked up by 42 stations since its launch last April, also has a new executive producer. Mark Effron, a TV news and digital media exec who has supervised news coverage for the MSNBC cable net and Post-Newsweek TV stations, most recently served as president of Titan TV Media, which helps local stations develop ad revenues with their websites.

Here’s one service that’s thrilled with the DTV transition, which brought it back to life for its viewers. MHz Networks, owned by Commonwealth Public Broadcasting, carries international programming into 27 million households nationwide. MHz’s analog signal to its two channels went dark in September; it was the country’s first station to switch off. That caused empty static for many fans in the spot it used to occupy. Then, after the final June 12 transition and rescans by viewers … “We got calls from people all over saying, ‘You’re back!’ ” said CEO Frederick Thomas. Unfortunately the transition was bumpier for other stations: Current reported on the ongoing problems with channels disappearing from their usual spots after the transition — problems that in some states went all the way to the governor’s office and Congress.

In a compromise with the few pubTV stations that carry religious programming, the PBS Board voted June 16 to allow them to keep their PBS membership without dropping the shows. Member stations also can carry worship services and other clearly sectarian programs on their DTV multicast channels or other distribution platforms so long as they don’t carry the PBS name or PBS-distributed programming. The ruling pleased the handful of pubTV stations that have longtime commitments to religious broadcasts. The PBS Board, aiming to maintain a clear separation between public TV’s identity and religious groups, did draw a line on sectarian programs, but the new member eligibility rule is much less restrictive than what the network’s Station Services Committee proposed in February.

KMBH-FM, in Harlingen, Texas, is warning listeners that anyone else soliciting donations for public radio in the Rio Grande Valley “may be a scam or a fantasy.” The Brownsville Herald reports that the on-air spots trouble organizers of Voices of the Valley, which is asking for pledges of support to establish an independent public radio service for the region. KMBH, which also operates a public TV station, is controlled by the Catholic Church. Msgr. Pedro Briseño, the president of KMBH and pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Harlingen, denies that the spots are intended to discredit Voices from the Valley.

The late French Chef Julia Child is getting a burst of extra attention with the Aug. 7 release of Julie & Julia starring Meryl Streep as pubTV’s breakthrough, endearingly unpretentioius cooking teacher. So both PBS and WGBH, Child’s earliest pubTV home, are capitalizing on the movie debut with an online compilation, an in-person panel recorded for the Web, and a retrospective August pledge special. PBS’s video portal just launched an online anthology of five French Chef episodes, eight of Baking with Julia and 13 of Julia Child Cooking with Master Chefs. A related “Bon Appetit Collection” page holds 13 Made in Spain programs and 23 segments from Everyday Food, including recipes and cooking tips.

The House voted 259 to 157 last night to pass the Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill. It contains the $20 million for the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program that had been in doubt. “This is a major victory for the public television community and represents a significant step toward the restoration of funding for local stations in this difficult economic environment,” the Association for Public Television Stations said in a statement. PTPF funding has dwindled from $43.2 million in fiscal 2003 to $18.8 million in fiscal 2008. During its February Capitol Hill Day, APTS lobbied hard for PTFP money, saying the decline created a “critical backlog” of applications outnumbering grants 2 to 1.

More victims of budget cuts: Reading programs in Florida for listeners who are blind or sight- impaired. WFSU in Tallahassee says it’s turning off its service July 1, and WMFE will discontinue local reading of the news while airing the national In-Touch network. The two stations and seven others in Florida are losing annual state grants; WMFE’s was $38,800 a year. There’s no more money to pay for equipment and volunteer coordination, WMFE President Jose Fajardo told the Orlando Sentinel. Established in 1993, the service’s volunteers read local newspapers and magazines from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays. Listeners received the readings through a special receiver, or on the secondary audio program channel of WMFE’s DTV signal.

John Robinson is director of corporate support at WMHT in Troy, N.Y., where he supervises an underwriting staff of three. He’s also the subject of the doc Get Off Your Knees: The John Robinson Story, which has its broadcast premiere tonight on the station. Robinson is a congenital amputee, born with stunted arms and legs. In addition to his pubcasting duties, he gives motivational speeches to school and community groups. “I’m never going to thumb wrestle with you, I’m never going to be the center of the basketball team,” Robinson tells students in the film. “What matters is how I deal with the body I have and the person that I am.”