Tag Archives: News

NPR, PBS Put Millions Into Investigative Reporting

This is why the GOP wants to de-fund NPR and PBS.  The Republicans don’t like investigative, impartial journalism…

They much prefer to have Fox “News” parrot their press releases….

Oh, and before anyone goes off….If you read the entire article, you will see this investigative journalism is funded by donations, not tax or government funding…

This is one of the many reasons I donate regularly to both NPR and PBS….

WASHINGTON — NPR, PBS and local public broadcast stations around the country are hiring more journalists and pumping millions of dollars into investigative news to make up for what they see as a lack of deep-digging coverage by their for-profit counterparts.

Public radio and TV stations have seen the need for reporting that holds government and business accountable increase as newspapers and TV networks cut their staffs and cable television stations have filled their schedules with more opinion journalism.

“Where the marketplace is unable to serve, that’s the role of public media,” PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger said last year at a summit on the future of media at the Federal Communications Commission. “PBS exists to serve the people, not to sell them.”

In the past three years, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has invested more than $90 million in federal funds on new journalism initiatives. That includes a $10 million local journalism initiative that is paying for the creation of five regional centers that will help local PBS and NPR stations cover news that affects wider geographic areas. Also, a $6 million grant from the group expanded the PBS investigative series “Frontline” from a seasonal series with a summer break to a year-round program.

via NPR, PBS Put Millions Into Investigative Reporting.

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Cable News Ratings | Rachel Maddow Has Stellar Numbers-Beats Glenn Beck

Nice to see one of the Good Guys/Gals winning…

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, without the benefit of a buzz-booster like Charlie Sheen, quietly jumped to the elite levels of cable news ratings, outperforming everyone at CNN and MSNBC, and even beating Fox’s Glenn Beck. Maddow hit 452,000 viewers 25-54, easily dominating CNN’s Piers Morgan, who had 208,000. Maddow, who was without any Charlie Sheen-like celebrity guest, even came close to Fox’s Sean Hannity, who won the time period with 561,000.

via Cable News Ratings | Rachel Maddow – MSNBC | Mediaite.

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Is Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes Going to Jail? | | AlterNet

Please, let one of my dreams come true!

In short, the Times report has managed to shock everyone. It’s shocked media insiders for the sheer recklessness of Ailes’ behavior. It has startled Fox News critics (like myself) who are amazed how cavalierly Ailes would counsel an employee to break the law. And the report has shaken Ailes loyalists who can’t believe the Machiavellian Fox News chief was so sloppy in his execution.

So yeah, this story is kind of a big deal and it has immediately been pushed to the head of the line in terms of pending Fox News troubles for 2011, right in front of Glenn Beck’s ongoing caliphate conspiracy madness and the conservative attacks it has sparked on him,

Indeed, the Times report would mean that Ailes and Beck, Fox News’ fiercest lightning rods, have quickly morphed from assets to liabilities.  We know Beck’s increasingly a liability because, thanks to his incendiary, hateful rhetoric, he’s unable to retain virtually any nationally recognized advertisers. And that’s been the case for almost a year-a-half now. No only are advertisers steering clear of Glenn Beck, but ratings continue to decline. That is not a formula for cable news success.

But even more scandalous is the specter of Ailes, who runs Fox News as his personal fiefdom, being thrust into the spotlight for potentially breaking the law; for allegedly telling an employee to lie to federal investigators.

via Is Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes Going to Jail? | | AlterNet.

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