"The Bush administration is introducing a political agenda to public broadcasting," writes columnist Molly Ivins. "They are using the lame pretext that PBS is somehow liberal to justify [turning] it into a propaganda organ for the government."

Stepping in where the Ready to Learn program may be cutting back, CPB has allotted up to $3 million for grants to stations that work with childhood literacy, the corporation announced at pubTV's National Center for Outreach Conference. Eighty to 100 stations will get "Ready to Lead in Literacy" grants of up to $35,000, said Ken Ferree, acting president. [Text of his remarks.]

Columnist Tom Teepen makes the case for supporting public broadcasting: "Public TV and radio are the anti-crudity media, refuges from the wasteland, a demonstration that mass media don't have to probe constantly for the lowest common denominator, and a standing rebuke to the commercial media for defaulting on their putative public trust."

Rhode Island's attorney general will continue investigating Boston University's management of its Rhode Island stations, reports the Boston Globe, despite the university's decision not to sell the stations. ''The motivation behind the decision to sell WRNI was shrouded in secrecy, and the motivation behind the decision not to sell doesn't seem that much clearer," said Patrick Lynch.

Investigators from CPB's Inspector General's Office are examining payments that the corporation made to two Republican lobbyists who provided "strategic advice" on legislation that would have changed the composition of the CPB Board, according to the New York Times.

NPR is "a better outfit than the people who are running public radio," says Bob Edwards in the Fairbanks News-Miner. (Via Romenesko.)