ITVS announces 12 films for its Global Perspectives Project

This year's 12 selections for the Independent Television Service's Global Perspectives Project tell stories in places as varied as Cambodia, Nicaragua, Iceland, Ethiopia and Uganda. The dozen films were selected from 489 submissions from 117 countries representing 75 languages, ITVS announced today (Oct. 7). The films will be featured on Independent Lens, P.O.V. and Global Voices, all on PBS. They'll also run on commercial outlets such as the Sundance Channel and HBO, and online. For details on the films, click here.

Hawaii PBS gets an especially touching donation

Leslie Wilcox, president of Hawaii PBS, blogs about a generous "major donor."

Tom Harkin: Senator, pubTV supporter, and now Super Reader

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), on Wednesday (Oct. 6) was declared an official Super Reader during a visit to Marshalltown, Iowa, to honor his work in promoting and helping fund public television, according to the local Times-Republican. As such, Harkin is now eligible to wear his very own Super Reader Cape. "Where I work, they will probably not let me wear it," Harkin told kids at the Marshalltown Public Library. "But when I go back to my office, I can wear it." Presenting the honor was Dan Wardell, Iowa Public Television Kids Club host. Super Reader is part of PBS's Super Why! literacy initative. (Image: Ken Black, Times-Republican)

Writers Guild wants Comcast to pay millions for pubaffairs programming via CPB

The Writers Guild of America East, which reps writers at several pubcasting stations, has written to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski with a suggestion: Comcast should donate $10 million annually over 10 years for news and public affairs programming as a requirement of its merger with NBC Universal. The Los Angeles Times reports that Michael Winship, president of the guild, and Lowell Peterson, its executive director, wrote that the merger "would further consolidate the production and distribution of news and public affairs programming relied on by the American public." So they think Comcast should "contribute significant resources to the production of truly independent content." The money should go through CPB or "another entity to be established for this purpose." Comcast responded by saying it was up to Congress and the public broadcasting community to figure out funding.