“The good TV and the bad TV were often in conflict,” said Aaron Brown.

It was a recent Wednesday afternoon and the longtime television anchor and correspondent was sitting at a table in Harry’s of Hartsdale, a nearly deserted steakhouse, a few short blocks from his home in Westchester County. He was reflecting on his career.

Mr. Brown was dressed casually, in a short-sleeved black cotton polo, a bit of white stubble standing out on his well tanned chin. He leaned back in his chair and, by way of demonstration, tapped his right shoulder and then tapped his left. The angel speaking into one earpiece, the devil whispering into the other.  read more »

The Media Mob has learned that "institutional advancement" has struck again at Thirteen-WNET, New York's flagship PBS station.

On Thursday, April 24, Vice President for Institutional Advancement Barbara Bantivoglio sent out a bulk email to Thirteen staffers informing them that the channel's marketing department was being "restructured."

In other words, more staffers were being laid off.

"It is never easy to make changes like these," wrote Ms. Bantivoglio.  read more »

On the afternoon of Jan. 18, dozens of staffers at Thirteen-WNET, PBS’s flagship station in New York, shuffled into a conference room at headquarters on West 33rd Street for an address from Neal Shapiro, the station’s boss.  read more »

In February, former NBC News President Neal Shapiro will officially take over as the president of the Educational Broadcasting Corporation, the licensee of public broadcast stations Thirteen-WNET and WLIW New York. In the meantime, Mr. Shapiro is already beginning to leave his mark on the programming of Thirteen-WNET, where he has served as president since roughly the start of the year.  read more »