If new Public Broadcasting President Paula Kerger performs half as well as she gives speeches, public television, a political football and favorite punching bag of former Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Chairman Ken Tomlinson, may be in for a renaissance.

In one of her first major speeches, after serving just ten weeks as PBS president, Herger said all the right things at the National Press Club on May 23.

Kerger noted that "at a time of unprecedented media consolidation," the local public broadcasting station often was the only locally owned and operated station in a community. "Localism is our calling card," she told reporters at the Press Club luncheon.