Critics bash boomer mythologizing on PBS

TV writers at the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times agree: tonight's two-hour PBS documentary The Boomer Century is a tiresome rehash.

Investigative reports cited with IRE Awards

Nuestra Familia/Our Family, a Center for Investigative Reporting doc for public TV about the Latino gang that grew in California's agricultural valleys, received an IRE Medal and the Tom Renner Award for crime reporting from Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc., IRE announced Monday. The award credits producer/director Oriana Zill de Granados, Julia Reynolds and George Sanchez of CIR. CPB and Latino Public Broadcasting were among the funders. [Program website.] The doc premiered last year on KQED and aired nationally last fall as part of Latino Public Broadcasting's Voces series, distributed by American Public Television. The film was edited by David Ritscher, who is also production coordinator for Frontline/World. NPR's Daniel Zwerdling, Anne Hawke and Ellen Weiss won an IRE Certificate for "Mental Anguish and the Military," about emotional damage suffered by Iraq War vets.

FCC clears NCE backlog

The FCC released details yesterday about the settlement of 76 groups of mutually exclusive applications for new full-power noncommercial educational stations. (PDFs of order, attachment.) Universities affiliated with Iowa Public Radio are in line to receive a total of seven construction permits. Other current operators of public radio stations who prevailed include Spokane Public Radio, the University of Wyoming, Temple University and the University of Massachusetts. Unsuccessful applicants: Jefferson Public Radio, Kentucky's Murray State University and WSKG in Binghamton, N.Y. The commission also announced plans to open a filing window for new noncoms in October.

Savage takes on Keillor

Dan Savage erupts over a Garrison Keillor column about modern families and gay parenting. "These couples deserve our gratitude and support," Savage writes. "What they don’t deserve is a rich, old hypocrite insinuating that they’re more interested in their fussy hairdos and over-decorated apartments than they are in raising their kids."