PBS series to put Newtown in perspective

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Public television is putting its resources into a weeklong examination of the Connecticut school shooting.

PBS announced that it will air a series of programs under the umbrella title "After Newtown." The February series will "continue the public conversation" on the topics of gun laws, mental illness and school security, PBS said.

Programs including "PBS NewsHour," "Frontline" and "Washington Week With Gwen Ifill" will be part of the initiative. The science series "Nova" will air a documentary on violence and the brain.

A "Frontline" report will examine the life of Adam Lanza, who shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Dec. 14 and killed 20 first-graders and six adults before committing suicide.

PBS' "After Newtown" initiative airs Feb. 18-22.

At a meeting of the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, PBS chief Paula Kerger said public television has a different mission than other media outlets when such events occur.

"PBS is not where you go for breaking news. Where we can add to the conversation is to step back . . . and say, 'OK, where are the big issues, and where does this take us?' " Kerger said.

In moments of tragedy, "there's a lot of fascination with the event itself," she said, while PBS asks about meaning and consequences and includes both the national and local impact. "We can work with stations in every community in the country to organize discussions so it's not just a news feed that goes out into the ether."