According to a report in Reuters, Exxon Mobil Corp is returning to PBS as a national sponsor, renewing its financial relationship with the public television broadcaster four years after it ended its backing of "Masterpiece Theatre." The connection between the world's largest publicly traded company and the public television programs it will now support is a bit more direct. Instead of doling out its dollars to arts programming, Exxon is getting behind the news program "Nightly Business Report" and the science series "NOVA."

Perhaps the company is hoping to combat some of the negative attention it has received for its record profits at a time when Americans are paying over $4.00 per gallon at the pump. Of course, PBS has never shied away from criticizing the oil industry, so that plan may backfire...here's an excerpt from the program "A Sea of Trouble," part of the series "Expose," in which a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer looks into the safety of oil tankers in the Pacific Northwest.