I volunteer as a camera guy and other things for WOUB, a PBS station in Athens that is run by Ohio University. I was just wondering if any of you think PBS has a conservative or liberal slant when it comes to news and programming.

If there is a slant, it is a centrist one. Generally, PBS has content which is less likely to exhibit political or corporate influence. You can find some good science on PBS. The News Hour is the part which can be centrist. It still is an OK source of news and better than network news by a hair. Network news is also centrist for the most part. Network news focuses on news it can sensationalize which is poor method of presenting news. PBS is less likely to do this.

My feeling is that PBS and NPR take a classical liberal stance when giving opinion and a centrist stance when reporting news.

You will seldom witness support for creationistic science, anti-abortion, less government (regulation of business), anti-homosexual, pro-nation building (or influence thereof), religious dogma in public schools, and any of the other pet projects of the far(ther) right-wing.

I appreciate the News Hour extended clips and discussions.

Most of the series are top-notch and beat Discovery by country miles, IMO. The single-video one about physics and the Big Bang theory finally made me understand what the heck Stephen Hawkins is talking about. The one about plate techtonics was an eye opener (image of the earth with the cracks in it like an egg).

When I have money, I always donate to both operations. If we go back to all-commercial TV, then I guess I'll just have to shoot mine.

PBS is great. they broke the story on the domestic security enhancement act of 2003 ( http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/lewis.html )

and you can't forget old bob ross, that guy rules.

I watch PBS but I have to say that they are hard to read. As for NPR, I would tend to say they are liberal. In fact, I recent'y stopped listening to NPR after they ran a string of very liberal stories and features.

PBS and NPR are somewhat closer to the center than the rest of the conservative media in this country. I think the main difference is the amount of time they give stories, the relative lack of punditry, and somewhat more objective coverage of the stories they do cover. As with most media, the bulk of the bias is in choosing which stories to cover at all - and the prominence they're given. While PBS/NPR are a bit more independent in this regard, they do tend, for the most part, to follow the mainstream conservative press (who do, after all, set the agenda of what news is).

I always have viewed NPR as being moderate, and I view PBS as being moderate to liberal in their news coverage and liberal in their other programming. I do think that it probably varies a bit. Here in Denver, we have two PBS stations, and one of them is seemingly more liberal than the other.