Inside PBS Blog

Almost one week after the Rev. Jeremiah Wright began his publicity tour on PBS's "Bill Moyers Journal," it seems the whole country is still debating the reverend's unconventional views on race and religion.

It's certainly Topic No. 1 over at the "Moyers" blog , where more than 100 comments have been left since yesterday alone.

What's interesting is how Barack Obama's decision on Monday to break forcefully with Rev. Wright has cast Mr. Moyers' interview in a new light.

Earlier today, Charles Brown wrote, "I remain surprised that there are still people who defend the Moyers interview as having shown the 'true'Jeremiah Wright, when Barack Obama himself now says that after 20 years, he now feels that he doesn't know the person that Wright has become."

It seems macman 2 couldn't disagree more. He writes, "I heard Bill Moyers excellent interview and I agree with Rev. Wright, which is why the media is really to blame for allowing distorted messages which do not show the whole picture to be presented. Of course big media conglomerates are afraid of Obama because if he kills the special interests, who will advertise on their network?"

The latest in the Rev. Wright controversy is also the topic du jour at "The NewsHour" site, where Anna Knapp takes issue with the way the media are reporting Sen. Obama's press conference yesterday.

As Anna sees it, "Obama has not denounced his Pastor. He only denounced what he has said, stating the various things he was offended by and that he is different from the pastor he knew."

Over on Wall Street, everyone is eagerly awaiting Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting this Saturday, so it's no wonder "Nightly Business Report" anchor Susie Gharib and her viewers are gabbing about her three-part "Meet the Buffetts" series, which began yesterday.

Hey Susie, we're thrilled to learn more about Howard, Susie and Peter Buffett, but what about Jimmy?

Meanwhile, two of the driving forces behind PBS's "Frontline" -- executive producer David Fanning and producer/correspondent Lowell Bergman -- just participated in a panel discussion on a topic near and dear to the heart of everyone at PBS: the future of investigative journalism.

As Mark Glaser reports at MediaShift, the Washington Post and the New York Times promised publicly at the conference to work more collaboratively with each other and competitors on investigative reporting.

As Mark notes, "This type of collaboration happens all the time online among bloggers, so it's nice to see that mentality seep into mainstream media work."

But Brad King, one of Mark's readers wonders if it's too little late: "Newspapers aren't losing circulation because of the Web. They aren't losing money because of Craigslist. They are losing money because they believe they can template THEIR way of doing journalism onto a personalized, on-demand Web world."

What stories in the news are on your mind today? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.