Bad news for that twenty-five-year-old PBS news program that is still broadcasting: It's in financial trouble!

Though Jim Lehrer's physical health is in recovery (Lehrer, who once moderated a debate where George Bush was rumored to have been mic'd up) just underwent aortic valve replacement surgery), his NewsHour's financial health isn't so sunshiny.

For the past 14 years, Archer Daniels Midland ("one of the world’s largest agricultural processors of soybeans, corn, wheat and cocoa") sponsored the program, ponying up about $4 million (and sometimes $7m) a year to pad the show's $26-28 million annual budget. Last summer, the company announced it was severing ties with NewsHour, leaving Chevron and the Pacific Life Insurance Company as the show's remaining sponsors. But that won't be enough to curb cutbacks.

On May 1, salaries were frozen, 401(k) retirement fund contributions, and new hires to fill open slots won't be a'coming.

Which means NewsHour, which reaches 1.2 million people each night, is going after foundation donations. These grants often carry certain stipulations, just like university donations, and are to be put toward certain types of projects. Among them: international reporting grants, which means Lehrer's show is growing its foreign coverage while most news programs shrink theirs.

Critics don't like these type of grants because they fear the money can dictate news coverage. [NYT]

And they might have a point! Just this month, correspondent Margaret Warner was shuttled off to China to report on the earthquake. It's all a part of a global warming conspiracy agenda, we're sure.