From Thursday's Star: The Public Broadcasting Service is attempting to fight off a conservative attack by hiring an ombudsman, among other actions.

An excerpt from the AP story:

Changes approved by the PBS board now go to the service's funding organization, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, for its consideration.

Millions of dollars in revenue for PBS could be at stake in the corporation's review.

PBS, which rejects accusations of liberal bias, said it has been reviewing its procedures since before Republicans in Congress moved to cut its financing. The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kenneth Tomlinson, has specifically accused a show hosted by Bill Moyers of featuring guests hostile to conservative views.

Revisions adopted by the PBS board include a requirement that commentary and opinion be labelled as such, and that program producers offer more information on how they gathered material and made their editorial decisions.

PBS also said it would hire an ombudsman to review controversial programs.

About 15 per cent of PBS' budget is from the federal government, with appropriations approved by Congress and provided through the CPB.

About $55 million in funds for a variety of programs over two years is at stake in the CPB's review of the new standards.