The Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes pokes fun at PBS President Pat Mitchell's explanation of why Tucker Carlson deserves a show on PBS (scroll down). But other TV critics loved it when Carlson, appearing at the TCA summer press tour, ripped Fox's Bill O'Reilly. "Tucker Carlson is funny, disarming, charming even," opines a critic for the Times-Picayune.

Jeff Smith, enthusiastic host of The Frugal Gourmet, died at age 65, reports the Seattle Times. Once one of public TV's most popular talents, Smith's broadcast career ended after a sex scandal.

"Having now been bleeped, I can only say that it doesn't feel very good. It feels kind of dirty." Richard Dreyfuss, star of a new PBS police drama that was edited for naughty words, lambasted the FCC's crackdown on broadcast indecency and its chilling effects on speech and creativity. The San Francisco Chronicle's Tim Goodman reports on the controversy and why PBS is in no position to challenge the FCC.