Last week the KPBS radio newsroom received two phone calls from the Navy and an email, informing us of the decommissioning of the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk. They wanted us to cover the story.  

It was a good story and one that many old timers in San Diego are interested in… the Kitty Hawk spent half of her 48 years home ported in San Diego. We followed up and did a radio spot to mark her departure.

But today, another fax eventually made its way to the newsroom from some far-off fax machine in the station, informing us that the Navy is holding public hearings on the traffic impacts of permanently home porting a third aircraft carrier in San Diego. When was that hearing? It started 20 minutes ago!

I called to find out why we didn’t get the information sooner. I was told that, due to Labor Day weekend, they had to fax out the information instead of emailing it. Hmm.

The web site on the press release led to a message: “There is a problem with this website's security certificate.”  When I asked where I could get information on the proceedings, the Environmental Public Information Officer didn’t know the web site address.

I called another Navy contact who eventually found me the web site.

It is, conveniently, under the Navy’s Engineering Command.

The public scoping period on the impacts of home-porting a third Nimitz class (that means nuclear powered) aircraft carrier starts next month, in October. Maybe by then the Navy will have figured out its public outreach.

Whether you love him or hate him, San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre is good at grabbing headlines by grabbing issues of public concern.

This week, he issued a report entitled, "KPBS Abrogated its Duty to Maintain Objectivity and Balance in its Local Public Affairs Programming by Cancelling the Full Focus Program (PDF)." I want to be among the first to thank him.

Oh, I don't think he makes a very good case against the station. Even his bold display of KPBS' internal emails fails to substantiate anything approaching an abrogation of balance and objectivity. In fact, I'm afraid Mr. Aguirre may have embarrassed himself and his office for pressing what appears to be a personal vendetta against an editor for the Union-Tribune who frequents our air.

For readers who don't have the time to digest Mr. Aguirre's report, you should know he establishes several facts: that KPBS operates as a public service with funding from various sources, that KPBS is obliged to an ethical code defined by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and (among others) the Public Broadcasting Service, and that KPBS cancelled its daily television public affairs program in August. 

Where Mr. Aguirre departs from the facts is in his assertion that the cancellation amounts to a violation of ethics. Taking Full Focus off the air was certainly a loss for our community -- because he's right when he says it was one of the few sources of balanced, in-depth civic discourse on San Diego television. But it was removed for failing to draw viewers, which amounts to a responsible programming decision, not a dereliction of duty.

But what is even further afield in his report, departing from its very premise, is his concern with a Friday morning radio program, Editors Roundtable.

By switching the topic to KPBS Radio (89.5 FM), Mr. Aguirre completely ignores the significant investment KPBS has made there in its local news, public affairs and news analysis. Editors Roundtable is but one hour among the more than 15 hours a week that we produce to help our region better know itself.

And if the bottom line in his report is to suggest that U-T editorial page editor Bob Kittle is some kind of controlling force in KPBS programming, that's just plain silly. Mr. Kittle certainly informs the producers about what topics he can speak about (the two times per month he appears). And if Mr. Aguirre is upset that Cox Channel Four only seems to cablecast those episodes featuring Kittle (and Tim McClain and John Warren), well then he should take that up with Cox. But Mr. Kittle appears as a guest of KPBS and does so with all due respect for being invited.

But back to my premise. I want to thank Mr. Aguirre for his time and attention to the matter. It's a legitimate concern that San Diego be covered with depth and objectivity. And it's a righteous position to take -- insisting that a single newspaper editor not dominate the civic agenda of a community. And, frankly, until this, how much time has the average San Diegan spent pondering the ethics and standards of its local media?

Mr. Mike Aguirre deserves our thanks for caring about San Diego... and about the editorial health of KPBS.

Sincerely: Thank you, sir.

We'd have a better city if more people cared as much as you.

-- Michael Marcotte is the news director for KPBS. Please read our guidelines before posting comments.

See also: Michael Aguirre spoke on These Days about this issue (he appears 28min into the program).

Today, we were in the news.

The Union Tribune ran a story on how City Attorney Michael Aguirre is questioning the cancellation of Full Focus as well as how participants are selected on Editors Roundtable.

There is something a little scary when the tables are turned and, suddenly, your news organization itself is the subject of a news story. I wanted to know what was going on. Nothing official has been said about this situation here at the KPBS building.

This morning, I interviewed KPBS General Manager Doug Myrland about the records requests.

Above is the audio from that 14-minute talk that I had with Doug. It's unedited for a reason -- I believe that the standards of transparency needs to be higher when a news organization looks into itself.

P.S. For those of you who got into the infamous conversation with Doug on Off Mic about the Full Focus cancellation, he addresses it about 9 minutes into the discussion.

A High-Tech TV Detector Van (BBC)

All five members of San Diego's congressional delegation have voted to protect federal funding for public broadcasting. President Bush tried to kill a $420 million subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. But Republicans Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa and Brian Bilbray, as well as Democrats Susan Davis and Bob Filner, joined an overwhelming House majority and killed that idea. (So why is it so hard to get them on the air?)

House rejects Bush plan to eliminate public broadcasting subsidies

The 357-72 vote demonstrated the enduring political strength of public broadcasting. The outcome was never in doubt, unlike a fight two years ago when Republicans tried but failed to slash public broadcasting subsidies.

[...]

"It is providing a voice for America, a noncommercial, independent voice that is sadly lacking. It isn't available any place else in the million channels on our cable networks," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon.

And so public broadcasting is saved again. Every year, the government threatens to tear us down, and every year, we squeak by. It's hard enough to survive on donations, especially in an era when newsrooms are getting axed in favor of other programming. (At KPBS, government subsidies make up some 14.5 percent of the budget, donations nearly 40 percent.)

Back in June, I visited the BBC in London and salivated. There, the government doesn't just protect public broadcasting — everyone with a TV is forced to pay for public broadcasting. And people go along with it. To sniff out the deadbeats, police are said to patrol the streets in high-tech detector vans. (Many Brits think this is a conspiracy.) The fine for freeloading is something like ?1,000, or about $2,000.

And you thought our pledge drives were annoying.