PBS adding to its YouTube stash

PBS is adding more video content to its YouTube channel, including original online content, previews of broadcast programs, and longer program segments. PBS currently has nearly 700 videos on YouTube, most of which are less than 6 minutes long.

Unneighborly neighbors in the Prairie Home next door

All is not well in Lake Wobegone. Prairie Home Companion host and creator Garrison Keillor is suing his neighbor over a planned expansion of her home next door to his in St. Paul's Ramsey Hill historic district. “Neighbors do not deal with neighbors in the way you have dealt with us,” Mr. Keillor reportedly wrote in an e-mail to Lori Anderson, who ended a New Zealand vacation with her fiance to attempt to resolve the dispute. Yesterday a county judge sent the two sides to a mediator to attempt to work out an agreement, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which published a photograph of the stalled construction project (subscription required).

CPB grants $1.3 million for election collaboration

CPB has awarded more than $1.3 million to a consortium of public radio and television organizations to support multi-platform coverage of Election 2008. The partners include American Public Media, Capitol News Connection, KQED, NPR, PBS, Public Radio Exchange, Public Radio International/Public Interactive and The NewsHour. The mashup of local and national content will include election video and teaching materials from PBS, a collaborative content initiative called Global Perspectives on Election 2008 from PRI, a collection of election audio and social media content from PRX, and user-generated political commentaries curated by NPR. An interactive election map from The Newshour and NPR and an "Ask Your Lawmaker" web widget from CNC--through which users can question their lawmakers and listen to answers obtained by journalists--are already up and running. Andy Carvin, NPR's senior strategist for online communities, writes more about the project here.

Sarkozy would make Radio France ad-free also

President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to end advertising on France's public television channels would also take ads off Radio France, reports Forbes. Advertising accounts for only about 8 percent of the pubradio network's budget, in contrast to 40 percent of the pubTV network's budget. French Culture and Communication Minister Christine Albanel said the government would try to get the law passed before summer.