At a time when programs from "Frontline" to "Sesame Street" have the potential to enrage at least one segment of an audience, the president of PBS says the existence of cranky viewers is one indication that the network is doing its job.

Paula Kerger, CEO of the Public Broadcasting System since 2006, said during a visit to PBS affiliate KUHT in Houston that contentious times shouldn't make for timid television.

"This is not a time for timidity," Kerger said. "We live in charged times. Cranky is probably a good way to put it. Our job is constantly to put issues and ideas forward, and, frankly, if we're doing our job, people should be cranky. If everyone is singing "Kumbaya," we're taking far too safe a path."

With that in mind, Kerger said PBS continues to support programs such as "Frontline," which has reported extensively on the financial crisis and war in the Middle East and will focus this year in part on controversial court cases such as the Cameron Todd Willingham execution in Texas.

"('Frontline') is not a program that corporations are lining up to support, because it is unflinching, and someone's ox is always being gored," she said. "But if we felt we couldn't put programs like that on the air, I'd hang up my hat."

Program controversies aside, PBS and its affiliates have other challenges. In Los Angeles, longtime affiliate KCET recently said it will become an independent. In Waco, Texas, KWBU went off the air in June because of funding shortfalls.

More recently, the dismissal of analyst Juan Williams by National Public Radio stirred the ire of some conservative politicians who already object to public funding of radio and TV stations at a time when some smaller stations depend on public funding for up to 40 percent of their budgets. Kerger said KCET will be replaced in Los Angeles by another station with a similar signal pattern, and PBS is working with other public TV stations to collaborate on broader projects. In Waco, meanwhile, some viewers still have access to Dallas PBS station KERA.

And the political fallout of the Williams case, she said, is nothing new. Even though NPR and PBS are separate entities, Kerger said, "We are a public media family, and we stand together."

In fact, the Williams case has drawn shots from the political left as well.

"There are people sailing in from the left and saying, 'See, the debate shouldn't be about public broadcasting being too liberal. They are far too conservative,'" Kerger said. "It's just disjointed. It's crazy."

Public money accounts for about 15 percent of PBS' total funding, and Kerger said surveys by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research show strong support for public broadcasting.