‘Is PBS Still Necessary?’ PBS Viewers Say Yes

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Responds to Story in The New York Times

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/21/2008 2:48:00 PM

PBS' The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer got more than 5,000 online responses to its question on whether PBS was still relevant, the vast majority saying an emphatic "yes," according to show spokeswoman Anne Bell.

That followed a story in The New York Times with the provocative title, "Is PBS Still Necessary,” the thrust being that cable has stolen much of PBS' programming thunder.

Lehrer added an editor's note to his Tuesday broadcast about the story and asked viewers to weigh in. The show opened a forum on its Web site to collect the comments. Bell said a typical forum might get 400 or 500 responses on a hot topic.

NewsHour plans a follow-up on the story on-air.

Bell also pointed out that the story has become fodder for other sites, including more than 600 comments on Digg.com and a long string of them on PopWatch, the majority there, too, standing up for the noncommercial service.