PBS Ombudsman

The Edwards Confession: Unfit for NewsHour Viewers?

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:38:24 -0500

There is a legitimate debate underway within journalistic circles, and in that part of the online blogging world that keeps tabs on journalism, about whether the major news organizations in this country did the right thing, or the wrong thing,...

Ombudsman's Mailbag

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:41:05 -0500

Last week's column about a segment on the NewsHour moderated by Margaret Warner with guests Max Boot and Lawrence Korb — informal campaign advisers, respectively, to Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama — included several letters that were sharply critical...

This 'Boot' Is Made for 'Walkin' All Over You'

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:25:42 -0500

(Ombudsman's Note: This column was scheduled to appear at its usual time last Friday, July 25, but posting was delayed until Monday, July 28, due to technical problems at pbs.org.) The headline of this column is lifted from a song...

Ombudsman's Mailbag

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:01:11 -0500

The mail from viewers this week focused on the new, the old and the continuing. The majority of comments dealt with a new program. They had less to do with typical ombudsman's issues of journalistic standards or editorial integrity. Rather,...

The Ombudsman's Mailbag

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:40:56 -0500

Welcome to another collection of viewer responses to what they saw and heard on PBS in recent days. This week, most of the mail, and certainly most of the heat, was generated by Part II of a three-part series titled...

'Out of the Closet' and Out of the Transcript

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:47:18 -0500

As so often happens when even small mistakes or missteps are made, the cover-up turns out to be worse than the crime. It can be even more perplexing when it is not clear that a crime actually was committed. This...

The Ombudsman's Mailbag

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:00:44 -0500

Last week's Ombudsman's Mailbag centered on a couple of letters from viewers about the June 13 edition of "Bill Moyers Journal" that focused on the theme of "inequality in America." I thought two of the letters, especially, captured the on-going...

Ombudsman's Mailbag

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:32:11 -0500

Welcome to another Ombudsman's Mailbag, a sampling of comments from viewers during the past week. The volume, as measured in numbers, was down a bit compared to our normal flow of incoming e-mail and calls. But the volume, as in...

Changing the Rules

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:48:50 -0500

Is this a great time to be an ombudsman, or what? Yes, it is a good time but a lot of the action was elsewhere last week, although several PBS viewers in certain parts of the country were upset —...

The Ombudsman's Mailbag

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:56:12 -0500

I was out of the office last week, attending the annual gathering of news ombudsmen. It was held this year, fittingly, in Stockholm, Sweden, home of the word, and the birthplace of this strange occupation. According to the Web site...

'Nobody Asked Me, But . . .'

Fri, 23 May 2008 13:53:57 -0500

The headline above was made famous by Jimmy Cannon, a well-known and widely-read New York sportswriter and columnist in the 1940s and '50s. Lots of people, including me, sort of grew up reading his column. But every once in a...

Caution: That Program May Not Be From PBS

Thu, 15 May 2008 16:42:10 -0500

Note: This column contains a correction posted on May 20. Each year, for the past several years, PBS puts out a press release that proclaims proudly that a new national poll by the respected Roper organization "shows that Americans consider...

Carried Away?

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:02:22 -0500

If you are a devoted viewer of PBS, it was hard to miss endless shots of Navy jets taking off and landing on the deck of the USS Nimitz last week, part of a highly-promoted and, indeed, tantalizing series called...

Too Much Reverence for the Reverend?

Thu, 01 May 2008 15:45:51 -0500

This was a busy week at the ombudsman's desk. Things started to heat up last Friday night after the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. was the guest for the full hour of Bill Moyers Journal. In case there is anyone...

About Those 'Retired' Military Officer/Analysts

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:37:36 -0500

Last Sunday, The New York Times published a very lengthy — even by Times' standards — investigative article headlined, "Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand." The sub-headline read: "Courting Ex-Officers Tied to Military Contractors." The 7,600-word article by reporter David...