Inside PBS Blog

PBS may be home to some of the best talk shows on television, but not all the interesting discussions happen on air.

Take the site for "Tavis Smiley," which offers "Young Voices," a blog by four writers like culture critic Jeremy Freed.

In an entry this week, Jeremy lavishes praise on recent "Tavis" guest Arianna Huffington, calling her hugely popular Huffington Post group blog "a gleaming example of what new media can and should be."

Jeremy likes how the HuffPo mixes its coverage of politics, entertainment and pop culture, concluding that other publications would be reluctant to follow suit "for fear of weakening their brands. For The Huffington Post, however, it only serves to bring more traffic and increase the site's prestige."

Over at the site for "Charlie Rose," viewers get in the kind of rowdy debates that rarely occur between the polite host and his usually low-key guests.

Take some of the comments posted about the May 21 interview with Sandy Weill, the former Citibank chief who discussed the company's philanthropic efforts in Africa.

One user describes being "deeply impressed" by Mr. Weill's philanthropy. Another says she enjoyed "getting to know" him.

Then there are comments like these: "The credit card industry creates more grief on shore than a few conscience absolvers can offset making a show of charity off shore. Hypocrisy personified! Dante is salivating!"

Another writes, "Citigroup is a puppy-kicking, scumbag predatory exploiter of humankind."

Come on, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.

And then sometimes, TV talkers turn the tables on each other in Public Television Land.

That's what happened May 28, when celebrity gabber Barbara Walters appeared on "Greater Boston" â€" a local newsmagazine that airs on WGBH, the PBS station in Boston â€" to hawk her just-released memoirs.

Host Emily Rooney couldn't resist raising a touchy topic: Ms. Walters' revelation of her relationship with Edward Brooke, who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate in the '60s and '70s.

"We were told not to ask about the years long affair she had with the married senator, but I did," Emily tells viewers during the report.

You go, girl!

To see Ms. Walters' reaction, watch the interview here.