THAILAND’S PBS MAY FACE CRIMINAL CHARGES AFTER AIRING MONARCHY DEBATE

Thailand’s Public Broadcasting Service is seeking the aid of outside lawyers to defend itself against possible charges that a series of recent talk shows in which the role of the monarchy was debated violated the country’s lèse majesté law. In Thailand, criticism of the king can be punished by up to 20 years in prison. Twenty […]

MUPPETEER JERRY NELSON, VOICE OF THE COUNT, HERRY MONSTER, OTHERS, DEAD AT 78

Jerry Nelson, who operated several of the puppets — or Muppets — and gave voice to The Count and Herry Monster on Sesame Street as well as dozens of other characters on the long-running PBS show, the syndicated The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and the Muppet movies, has died at his home in Cape Cod […]

WILL NETWORKS BE COVERING THE RNC OR ISAAC?

The anchors of the three major evening newscasts — Brian Williams of NBC, Diane Sawyer of ABC, and Scott Pelley of CBS — are set to command the troops of network reporters who will be covering the Republican and Democratic conventions beginning next week. None of them will be covering the opening night of the […]

CHARLIE ROSE SET FOR TRIPLE DUTY AT CONVENTIONS

It turns out that Charlie Rose will become arguably the busiest journalist covering the two political conventions beginning next week. Besides continuing as co-host of CBS’s morning show, Rose will also be hosting his nightly program for PBS from the two conventions as well as a nightly report for Bloomberg TV. In a statement Bloomberg […]

ROMNEY WOULD END SUBSIDY TO PBS

Mitt Romney’s comment in a recent interview with Fortune magazine that he would eliminate subsidies to PBS, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities is predictably being hailed by many conservatives and denounced by many liberals. In the interview, Romney said that although he appreciates what those organizations do […]

WILL POLITICIANS SAVE BIG BIRD FROM THEMSELVES?

If Republican politicians are successful in their efforts to eliminate funding for public television, the Big Bird broadcasters may be able to find alternative revenue — from the politicians themselves. In a scantly reported decision, a federal appeals court in San Francisco last month overturned the federal ban on political advertising on public broadcasting stations […]

DID ABC DOLLARS SAVE CASEY ANTHONY?

An investigative report on PBS’s Frontline scheduled to air on Tuesday will make the case that forensic specialists brought in by the prosecution in highly publicized cases can be challenged effectively in court — but often at enormous legal costs. In an interview with investigative reporter Lowell Bergman, attorney Jose Baez, who defended Casey Anthony, […]

MURDOCH AND CO. FACE NEW SCANDALS

While it is unlikely that any coordinated planning was involved, several news outlets yesterday and today (Tuesday) rolled out investigative projects targeting Rupert Murdoch and News Corp, — among them Britain’s BBC, the London Independent, and America’s PBS. The BBC report claimed that the News Corp software company NDS cracked the access codes used by […]

TITANIC TV DRAMAS DEBUNK CAMERON’S FILM DRAMA

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic will see two television shows broadcast — fittingly — on each side of the Atlantic Sunday night — each of which will attempt to refute in part the 1997 James Cameron version of events. In Britain on Sunday, the commercial network ITV plans to launch a […]

PBS, CBC TO AIR DOCUMENTARY ABOUT NEWS CORP SCANDAL

PBS in the U.S. and the CBC in Canada plan to air a Frontline documentary on Tuesday, March 27 titled “Murdoch’s Scandal,” dealing with the telephone hacking and bribery scandal that threatens to bring down the man regarded as the world’s most powerful media mogul. The documentary is being produced by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lowell […]

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