Heir America

By Diane Ronayne, AlterNet. Posted June 25, 2005.

Well before Air America or Democracy Radio were sparks in their daddys' eyes, Public News Service was quietly getting blue state perspectives to red state listeners.

Guess which progressive news service produced 1,730 stories that aired more than 100,000 times last year on 2,320 mainstream and alternative stations across the country, from Pacifica to Clear Channel. Air America? Nope. Democracy Radio? Uh uh. It's Public News Service -- perhaps the most widely used independent news service you've never heard of.

PNS began as Northern Rockies News Service in 1996, the brainchild of journalist Lark Corbeil. A veteran of international television news, she had returned to her home state of Idaho in the early 1990s and volunteered at a public radio station. Taken aback by the amount of ultra-conservative content available to broadcasters, she started thinking about how to help offset it by getting more alternative voices into mainstream public debate. Her solution was to offer the media balanced news stories written and edited by professional journalists. The stories would examine the effects of policy on areas that received little coverage, lift up marginalized voices and make greater journalistic breadth available to broadcasters and publishers.