Since CBS aired Hal Holbrook's Mark Twain show in 1967 "no one, not even public television, has put the performance on the air," Bill Moyers observed during an interview with Holbrook aired on Now March 19. PBS, like other broadcasters, balked at the word "nigger," from Huckleberry Finn excerpts. Holbrook said: "Well, when you get into corporate decision-making, especially in these days of political correctness, you are in jail." Alan Foster told the story last fall in Current.

NPR hired William K. Marimow as an additional managing editor, a new position. Marimow edited the Baltimore Sun until January, when the paper's publisher fired him, telling the Washington Post that "our partnership was not where I wanted it to be." (Latter article via Romenesko.)

James Randi, the magician and debunker of paranormal hoaxes, observes on his website that public TV stations "are featuring both Dr. Wayne Dyer and Dr. Gary Null, to take advantage of the public's taste for quackery." (Scroll down to the photo of Null's book "Healing with Magnets.")

Leslie Cagan, former chair of Pacifica's interim national board, urged an audience at a March 12 meeting to abandon "the ugly and at times de-mobilizing ways" that struggle has manifested within the network. Cagan stepped down as a newly elected board assumed power. Pacifica has also settled differences with a former manager of its New York station.

Peter Troxell, former g.m. of KUSP-FM in Santa Cruz, Calif., died of cancer March 17. His son kept a moving weblog about his death.

The Associated Press looks at competition between public radio and religious broadcasters for spectrum, with a recent Marylan dispute as an example.