The Knight Foundation has issued an apology for paying Jonah Lehrer $20,000 to speak at its media seminar. ”Controversial speakers should have platforms, but Knight Foundation should not have put itself into a position tantamount to rewarding people who have violated the basic tenets of journalism,” reads a statement on its website. “We regret our mistake.”

It’s hilarious that they’re only now realizing that yeah, maybe this wasn’t so smart. How did it take this long? This is how we imagine the heads of Knight Foundation reacted after Lehrer’s speech ended:

Guy 1: “Hmm… This fellow sure made some puzzling choices.”

Guy 2: “Yup, that’s Jonah Lehrer, he lied his way into a job with The New Yorker, among other things.”

Guy 1: “Oh, that Jonah Lehrer. So wait, we just paid $20,000 to a dude who consciously crapped all over journalism?”

Guy 2: “Hahaha! Yeah, he’s kind of a dick.”

Guy 1: “We’re gonna need to apologize.”

[Image - Knight Foundation]

NPR announced today that it is planning to launch a new local online journalism venture with $3 million in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The funding — $2 million coming from CPB and $1 million from the Knight Foundation — will be used to provide a group of NPR stations with the resources to hire “journalist bloggers” who will focus on a topic that is important to the city where they are based. “Stations will feed their work into NPR’s content management system, where the entire group of participants will have easy access to each others’ work to inform, enrich and add context as they create and present their stories,” NPR said.

In addition, through the two years of the pilot program, PBS‘s “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” will provide participants with an embeddable video player for their Web sites, while also featuring local reporting from selected stations on the “NewsHour.”

NPR said the stations that will participate in the pilot program have not yet been selected. However, they will include a mix of radio/TV operation and public radio stations from around the country.

A full release about the venture, after the jump.

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The Texas Tribune, a new non-profit news organization launched by former Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith, today announced that it has received $750,000 in grants a month before its Web site goes live. $500,000 was donated by Houston Endowment, a private foundation created by Mr. and Mrs. Jesse H. Jones, while the Knight Foundation contributed another $250,000.

Full release about the funding after the jump.

Earlier: From Texas Monthly To Texas Weekly: Evan Smith Picks Up Experienced Staff For New Venture

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