Free Republic

The website of taxpayer-subsidized Boston PBS superstation WGBH posted a commentary by local professor Dan Kennedy on December 3 provocatively titled "How Fox News Is Helping Destroy the Planet." Kennedy writes a column weekly for WGBHNews.com and is a panelist on their local show Beat the Press. He began: "Want to fight climate change? Tell your elderly relatives to turn off Fox News." Kennedy cites the latest poll from the liberal Pew Research Center showing about two-thirds of U.S. adults (67%) say the federal government is doing too little to reduce the effects of climate change, and similar shares say...

A political writer for the Boston Globe was forced to resign due to sexual harrassment. The paper refused to release his name but yesterday Kirk Minihane of radio station WEEI said it was Jim O'Sullivan; today, public radio station WGBH also confirms it was O'Sullivan. He is no longer on the paper's website and has not tweeted in a month. Tori Bedford of WGBH: "Even if you already knew this, somebody needed to report it with vetted sources, so here it is: "@wgbhnews confirmed that one of the accused Globe employees is Jim O’Sullivan, a political reporter who...resigned in late...

"Klansville U.S.A." which was broadcast nationally last night is a PBS American Experience production by WGBH in Boston based on a book of that title by David Cunningham. It is an interesting look at the rise and fall of the North Carolina Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s. A very good historical documentary marred by the jarring flaw of taking a cheap shot at Republicans. It was almost as if the producer and director, Callie T. Wiser, just couldn't restrain herself from taking a shot at Republicans. The documentary stuck to the facts until just a couple of minutes before...

Nearly 100 environmental activists protested outside WGBH’s Brighton studios yesterday calling for conservative billionaire David Koch’s ouster from the public broadcaster’s board of trustees. “I am here today because David Koch is a climate denier and ’GBH has scientific programs and he should have absolutely no influence on PBS and public broadcasting,” said Nate Goldshlag of Arlington.

Last year, Keith Lockhart found a silver lining when CBS pulled the plug on the national broadcast of the Fourth of July Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular: creative control. This week, Lockhart is asserting that control with the first-ever Pops-directed webcast of the Independence Day extravaganza. Locally, WBZ will carry the TV broadcast; globally, fans can catch the live stream on bostonpopsjuly4th.org or cbsboston.com.

Angry environmental activists say they have more than 70,000 signatures and plan to flood a WGBH trustees meeting next week calling for the ouster of conservative lightning-rod billionaire David Koch from the board — but the public TV and radio station for now is standing by the longtime PBS mega-donor. “David Koch has essentially dedicated himself — and tens of millions of dollars — to deliberately mislead the public about climate change,” claimed Emily Southard of environmental group Forecast the Facts. “That’s completely incompatible with an organization like WGBH, which is dedicated to public education.” Koch, a prominent Mitt Romney...

The flagship of public television, WGBH — which claims taxpayer money accounts for just a small fraction of its budget — has in fact scored more than $80 million in obscure federal handouts over the past half-dozen years, a Herald review found. The public broadcasting titan has pulled in more than $50 million in federal funding over the past six years from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — including $11.5 million this year, or about 8 percent of its 2011 operating budget. However, WGBH honchos acknowledged yesterday they have received another $80 million in federal money for various programming. including:...

More than a dozen WGBH honchos at PBS’ taxpayer-subsidized flagship station are raking in upwards of $200,000 a year while toiling in the lap of a luxurious $85 million multimedia palace dubbed the “Taj Mahal” that boasts a 200-seat amphitheater, state-of-the-art recording studio and Hamburg-Steinway grand piano. The Herald’s review of the nonprofit producer behind such PBS stalwarts as “Frontline” and “Nova” comes on the heels of yesterday’s sudden ouster of National Public Radio’s boss following a viral video that showed another NPR executive calling Tea Party Republicans racist. The furor is fueling a new push to end taxpayer subsidies...

Classical station has new business model: support of donors Boston is following a trend in radio that’s taking place in other cities across the nation: Its only 24-hour classical music station now depends on listeners - not advertisers - to keep it afloat. Last week’s Federal Communications Commission approval of WGBH’s $14 million purchase of WCRB-FM (99.5) means the classical musical station is now a public broadcaster, with a business model that draws revenue from donations and corporate sponsorship instead of relying on advertising. Because classical music fans tend to be older, and advertisers typically want to court a younger...

Just two years ago, WGBH celebrated the opening of an $85 million state-of-the-art headquarters that symbolized its self-described status as a “public media powerhouse.’’ Today, the nonprofit is coming to grips with the economic realities of operating radio and television stations in a recession. While WGBH produces some of the Public Broadcasting Service’s marquee programming, including “Frontline,’’ “Nova,’’ and “Antiques Roadshow,’’ it must trim about $7 million from its budget this year. That means layoffs, wage freezes, and unpaid furloughs. (snip) The health of WGBH, which started in 1951, is especially important to PBS. The network depends on the station...

There’s a foul wind blowing off Cape Cod. The clean-energy project known as Cape Wind makes more sense than ever, what with the mess in the Middle East and the earth getting warmer by the minute. But resistance to the proposed wind-farm — which would place 130 windmills in Nantucket Sound and provide up to 75 percent of the Cape’s energy at any given time — proves that it really isn’t easy being green. Since Cape Wind was first proposed in 2001, the project has made plenty of powerful enemies (see the sidebar “Enemies in High Places”), including Ted Kennedy,...

NEW YORK -- Worried about the Federal Communications Commission, PBS is taking the words out of the mouths of some soldiers filmed during combat in Iraq. The public broadcaster is distributing "clean" and "raw" versions of next Tuesday's "Frontline" documentary about the Iraq war, titled "A Company of Soldiers," and is warning that it can't insure stations against FCC fines stemming from the language. It's an example of the TV industry's continued uncertainty about FCC standards for language and content, and a real-life echo of a decision made last fall by 66 ABC affiliates not to air the movie "Saving...

WQPT won't run `Buster' episode featuring lesbians By Jenny Lee, jlee@qconline.com Moline's public television station has decided not to air an episode of a children's show that implies two families have lesbian moms. New York's WNET, Boston's WGBH and a few other public television stations aired an episode Wednesday of "Postcards from Buster" that showed an animated bunny, Buster Baxter, visiting Vermont, learning about dairy farming and meeting two families with lesbian mothers at dinner, according to Jean Hopkins, vice president of communications of WGBH. The Boston station produces the show. Rick Best, general manager of Moline's WQPT Channel 24,...

Despite a rebuke from the new education secretary and an official cancellation by PBS, several large affiliates of the public TV network say they will air today a controversial episode of "Postcards from Buster," a cartoon series for pre-schoolers, that portrays homosexuality. Shortly after taking office last week, Secretary Margaret Spellings denounced PBS for using public dollars to promote the homosexual lifestyle. In a letter to the president of PBS, Spellings said: "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in this episode. Congress' and the Department's purpose in funding this kind of programming certainly...

WASHINGTON -- The nation's new education secretary denounced PBS on Tuesday for spending public money on a cartoon with lesbian characters, saying many parents would not want children exposed to such lifestyles. The not-yet-aired episode of "Postcards From Buster" shows the title character, an animated bunny named Buster, on a trip to Vermont -- a state known for recognizing same-sex civil unions. The episode features two lesbian couples, although the focus is on farm life and maple sugaring. A PBS spokesman said late Tuesday that the nonprofit network has decided not to distribute the episode, called "Sugartime!," to its 349...

FRONTLINE traces the roots of the Iraqi war back to the days immediately following September 11, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the creation of a special intelligence operation to quietly begin looking for evidence that would justify the war. The intelligence reports soon became a part of a continuing struggle between civilians in the Pentagon on one side and the CIA, State Department, and uniformed military on the other-a struggle that would lead to inadequate planning for the aftermath of the war, continuing violence, and mounting political problems for the president.