Frontline producer and reporter Martin Smith discusses "In Search of Al Qaeda", which aired last night on many PBS stations.

A profile in today's Washington Post describes the Nov. 24 debut of Skinwalkers as a defining moment for PBS President Pat Mitchell.

PBS's publicity blitz for Skinwalkers on Mystery! is churning up a spate of favorable press. Google's news search engine turned up 11 newspaper stories published since Nov. 19. The LA Times ran a Nov. 17 feature on what a trial it was for Robert Redford to bring Tony Hillerman's Native American mystery to the screen.

PBS's Benjamin Franklin apparently held its own against stiff November sweeps competition. The first part of the two-night miniseries pulled in a 2.9 household rating, according to an account in Media Life. That's about 61 percent better than the network's national average this season.

Pacifica held a marathon fundraiser Nov. 19 and is seeking grants to preserve decaying tapes that document recent decades of activism in its program archive, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

This year's Public Radio Talk Conference was received so well that PRNDI has scheduled a second annual event for May 2003.

John Potthast is leaving Maryland Public Television to oversee development of new national programming for WETA in Arlington, Va., reports the Washington Post.

The bad blood between Virginia's public TV stations has come to a boil, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The stations are feuding over how to share limited state money.

Activists have been picketing Minnesota Public Radio to protest what they believe is biased, pro-war reporting on the network and on NPR. [Via randomWalks.]

Four New York radio stations jockeying for Manhattan listeners are stepping on each other's toes in the process, raising worries about interference, reports the New York Times.