So, Friday has finally arrived. The Opening Ceremonies of the London Olympics are tonight. How many hours of the 17 day event will you watch and where will you watch it?
There is, however, some media news and a report on the third grade class known as the US House.
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The firing of Alan Pizzato as the Executive Director of Alabama Public Television (APT) continues to smolder as more information becomes available.
One of the issues expressed by all side was the Alabama Educational Television Commission wanted the network to air very conservative and controversial religious based programming. In most public television organizations, the Board or Commission has little or nothing to do with programming decisions.They, generally, leave those decisions to professional who know their field.
A group called Faithful America delivered petitions with over 100,000 signatures (about 3,500 from within Alabama) to "keep Religious Right propaganda off their stations."
The petitions accepted by APT COO Charles Grantham. He reiterated that the programs produced by David Barton would not air on the station. Grantham also sent a letter to Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley protesting the firings of Pizzato and deputy Pauline Howland. The letter said in part, "a shadow is being cast over APT by its own directors,"
In his first interview with CPB Omudsman Joel Kaplan, Pizzato said, ""The programming decisions of what is put on the air and what is said on
the air is the responsibility of the
management, executive management and the programmers of that station. It
is not the responsibility of the board."
"That to me is the biggest issue because this is bigger than Alabama Public Television and much bigger than Allan Pizzato,"
He noted that the actions by AETC should be a concern to managers throughout the system.
I am certain there will be more news about APT in the future. Pizzato has filed a lawsuit against the Commission.
Full interview here.
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One of the earlier experiments in regional news is closing. The Ohio News Network will close on Aug. 31.
ONN provided round-the-clock coverage of Ohio based news and public affairs programming. One of its most popular programs was high school football each Friday night.
According to Dispatch Broadcasting, owner of ONN, "Changing news consumer habits is the primary contributor to us making this most difficult decision." More in Broadcasting and Cable
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Time Warner Cable and Meredith Broadcasting is nearing a retransmission agreement. The continued negotiations will prevent a blackout of Meredith stations in Kansas City, Springfield MO, and Nashville.
More from Multichannel News
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The House finally passed a bill that would prevent the Obama administration from imposing new federal regulations for two years or until the unemployment rate drops to 6 percent.
The bill also prevents new regulations from being imposed between the November election and Inauguration Day to prevent the so-called Midnight Regulations should Obama lose the election.
Petulant House democrats held up the bill after typos were discovered and would not allow the bill to proceed under Unanimous Consent. I wonder how many typos are in Obamacare.
More from The Hill
That's it for now.
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