SHORT TAKES : ‘MacNeil-Lehrer’ Goes Bilingual

Public broadcasting’s “MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” will add simultaneous Spanish translations in January, the Corp. for Public Broadcasting said today.

The corporation, which is contributing $290,000 to fund a year of English-Spanish broadcasts, said “MacNeil-Lehrer” will be the first major nationally distributed news program to offer simultaneous second-language translation.

Thirty-seven public TV stations reaching more than half the nation’s 22 million Latinos will carry the translation, the corporation said.