WGBH, the producing station for the WORLD digital subchannel, wants to make sure folks know it is out there and will be carrying a repeat of Donald Trump public impeachment hearings that begin in the morning Wednesday (Nov. 13) in the House Intelligence Committee. World coverage will start each night at 7 p.m. Wednesday and then again Friday (Nov. 15), as that phase of the inquiry ramps up.
Former iconic PBS newsman Bill Moyers and a longtime colleague have been calling for PBS and its member stations to air the repeats of the PBS NewsHour coverage on their primary channels so a wider working audience could see the hearings. WORLD is available on 157 PBS stations reaching 64% of U.S. TV households, according to a WGBH Educational Foundation spokesperson, or about two-thirds of the country with access to the broadcast coverage (the story initially reported the broadcast reach at 11%, which was incorrect).
Those stations do not include Washington, where the hearings are being held, but WETA Washington, producing station for NewsHour will re-air the hearings in prime time.
Moyers has slammed the re-airing on WORLD as burying the coverage along with "the many public affairs programs sent there to die" because he says the channel is "difficult to find if not impossible to receive," adding that online coverage requires a broadband connection.
A spokesperson for WORLD, in seeking to promote that WORLD coverage, pointed out that "WORLD has earned every major broadcast honor, including national Emmy, duPont-Columbia and Peabody awards."
As to the rebroadcast, they said: "WORLD’s plan for a prime-time re-broadcast of The PBS NewsHour live coverage of the upcoming impeachment hearings follow WORLD’s longstanding commitment to broadcast complete gavel-to-gavel testimony. WORLD stations and their viewers have come to expect this important public service, such as special broadcasts of coverage of the 2016 presidential inauguration, the George H. W. Bush funeral services, and hearings involving Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Robert S. Mueller III."
WORLD already routinely re-airs NewsHour's regular hour nightly news telecast.
