PBS Ombudsman
The PBS ombudsman serves as an independent internal critic within PBS. He reviews commentary and criticism from viewers and seeks to ensure that PBS upholds its own standards of editorial integrity. The PBS ombudsman serves essentially as the public’s editor at the broadcasting service, providing a new, additional contact point for the PBS viewing public, and for pbs.org audiences, to have their observations, comments, complaints or compliments heard by an independent arbiter.
- The Mailbag: Fact-Checking and Checking the Fact Checker
I'm a big fan of fact-checking, especially during political campaigns when so much is at stake and examples can be found on all sides of claims that are either false or not quite accurate. In tod … - The Daily Downton
This brief column doesn't have much to do with editorial matters, but the subject is breaking news that is just too good not to share. The British press, not so good at some things but very good … - The Mailbag: The NewsHour Responds
Last week's ombudsman's column and a mailbag the week before contained a representative dose of commentary from viewers who were complaining about what they saw as an overdose of coverage re … - Is It Republicans 24/7, or Does It Just Feel That Way?
It is not surprising that a heavy flow of mail these past few weeks is from viewers who, for the most part, are fed up with the extent that coverage of the Republican presidential campaign is dominati … - A FAIR Catch But UnFAIR Conclusion
Ombudsmen sometimes are the recipients of email campaigns driven by various interest or self-styled media-watch groups. So it was this week when some 2,000 emails landed in my inbox within a 24-hour p … - The Mailbag: 'Why Is There Such a Stunning Diversity…?'
The quote above is from the opening line of an episode of NOVA, the popular and long-running science series on PBS. The complete quote asks about the diversity of life and leads in to a NOVA program c … - The Mailbag: Year-End Odds and Ends
Here's a brief, final ombudsman's mailbag for 2011. Most of the mail is about various NewsHour segments, which has been the case now for quite a while since not much else on PBS seems to be … - A Heads-Up to Producers from a Viewer
The following is definitely not a proper, pre-Christmas offering. But, as is frequently the case, a single viewer raises an interesting, critical observation that is worth addressing even if seasonall … - The Mailbag: Self-Inflicted Wounds
A brief but strong gust of criticism blew into the ombudsman's inbox Wednesday evening. It was over almost as quickly as it began, but it sticks in my head as one more case of serious news organi … - The Mailbag: Making Sen$e of 'Clean-Cut' and 'Scruffy'
I was away last week and the mail and phone traffic was fairly light. But what messages did arrive seemed to reinforce a couple of observations made in earlier columns. The headline above, for example …
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Why doesn't SOPTV air the In the Life program as other PBS stations do? Tonight 9/2 there was supposedly a documentary program airing on public television at 11pm on getting old as a gay person in our country.
In the Life does not appear anywhere in the scheduling. Is this discrimination in programmming?
Jo
Would you consider showing Sesame Street or more quality children's programming in the afternoon? Having Sesame Street on at 9 in the morning is not very helpful to people not at home at that time or when kids are more active. 4 pm would be a great time to have it on while parents are getting ready for dinner. Or at least something better than the silly cartoons that are on now at that time.
Thank you,
Christie
The PBS children's program lineup is designed to provide quality programming for pre-school and grade-school aged children, which is why the afternoon programming is geared toward children home from school.
"Sesame Street" is traditionally a morning program, and there have been no discussions regarding a change, but I will add your request to the agenda for the next programming meeting.