Re: PBS Responds to FAIR Petition (fwd)

[robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

Did you find the podcast yet?

 > From: Noelle <http://dummy.us.eu.org/noelleg>
 > Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:36:36 -0800 (PST)
 >
 > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
 > Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:35:31 -0500 (EST)
 > From: FAIR <http://www.fair.org/~fair>
 > To: http://dummy.us.eu.org/noelleg
 > Subject: PBS Responds to FAIR Petition
 > 
 > Activism Update
 > 
 > PBS Responds to FAIR Petition
 > More than 14,000 have called for hard-hitting public journalism
 > 
 > http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4003
 > 
 > 1/26/10
 > 
 > FAIR presented a petition with more than 11,000 names to PBS on January 13, 
 > calling for worthy replacements for the exiting programs Bill Moyers Journal 
 > and Now. In all, 14,462 people signed the petition, including names added after 
 > it was delivered to PBS.
 > 
 > In a January 22 response, PBS described its new Friday night offering, Need to 
 > Know, but gave no indication of whether the program will continue the 
 > hard-hitting tradition of its predecessors.
 > 
 > Corporate Communications director Jan McNamara wrote that "PBS is committed to 
 > maintaining the highest level of news and public affairs programming" and that "
 > changes to our current schedule are necessary to make it possible for us to 
 > experiment with different formats and programming content, both on-air and 
 > online."
 > 
 > The new program, Need to Know, will be an "integrated broadcast and online 
 > current affairs project" that "will feature documentary-style field reports, 
 > both domestic and international, short features and studio-based interviews and 
 > conversation to complement and advance the produced reports."
 > 
 > Whether Need to Know will uphold Now and Moyers Journal's commitment to 
 > independent, hard-hitting journalism and analysis was not addressed by McNamara,
 >  and remains to be seen when the show debuts in May.
 > 
 > FAIR thanks all the activists who added their voices to the petition. McNamara'
 > s full response can be read below.
 > 
 > *****
 > 
 > Dear Mr. Naureckas:
 > 
 > Thank you for delivering your petition and its 11,172 signatures regarding FAIR'
 > s concerns about PBS's news and public affairs schedule.
 > 
 > PBS is committed to maintaining the highest level of news and public affairs 
 > programming. Changes to our current schedule are necessary to make it possible 
 > for us to experiment with different formats and programming content, both 
 > on-air and online, while continuing to serve the evolving needs of the American 
 > public. We do not have the financial resources to both maintain our current 
 > program lineup and develop new content offerings.
 > 
 > On January 13, at the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles, PBS 
 > president and CEO Paula Kerger announced that an integrated broadcast and 
 > online current affairs project entitled Need to Know will launch in May 2010.
 > 
 > During this press conference, Ms. Kerger described Need to Know as one of the 
 > key components of a PBS news and public affairs initiative, the first phase of 
 > which focuses on improving service to the public in three areas--on-air, online 
 > and service to communities through local stations.
 > 
 > Viewers saw the first phase of changes to the broadcast line-up with the debut 
 > of the redesigned PBS NewsHour in December and the revamped Nightly Business 
 > Report in early January. In the spring, as Need to Know premieres, PBS will 
 > begin aggregating all of its news and public affairs content along with 
 > offerings from editorial partners in an online "supervertical" site at PBS.org, 
 > as well as distributing the content across the Web. PBS is also joining leading 
 > public media entities in a partnership to develop a local/national system to 
 > support stations in responding more effectively to the gaps in local journalism 
 > created by the upheaval in the newspaper industry.
 > 
 > Each week's online story development will culminate in the weekly one-hour 
 > broadcast, curated from the week's reporting by the various beat teams. The 
 > broadcast will feature documentary-style field reports, both domestic and 
 > international, short features and studio-based interviews and conversation to 
 > complement and advance the produced reports.
 > 
 > Need to Know will air on PBS stations nationwide on Friday evenings, joining 
 > PBS's acclaimed public affairs lineup, including PBS NewsHour and Nightly 
 > Business Report, as well as Frontline and Washington Week With Gwen Ifill.
 > 
 > We appreciate your interest in PBS.
 > 
 > Sincerely,
 > 
 > Jan McNamara
 > Director, Corporate Communications
 > PBS
 > 
 > ******
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 > 
 > Feel free to respond to FAIR ( http://www.fair.org/~fair ). We can't reply to everything, 
 > but we will look at each message. We especially appreciate documented examples 
 > of media bias or censorship.
 > 
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