Destroying PBS: A Bush-appointed political operative says he’ll erase bias at PBS … by inserting bias.
[Tomlinson] is a Bush information apparatchik. It is quite clear he believes PBS and NPR should also function as cheerleaders for the government.
- Molly Ivins
I have long enjoyed the Public Broadcasting System, not because it espouses a particular viewpoint or pushes a political agenda, but because it does what good television and radio SHOULD do. It educates, entertains, and gives the consumer something to think about. PBS is not Liberal, it is not Conservative; it’s just good television without the hype, without the spin, and WITHOUT COMMERCIALS.
Of course, when you’re a Red Meat Republican ideologue, a media outlet that is not demonstrably supportive of your agenda MUST be infested with Liberals, eh? If you’re not with us, if you don’t march in ideological lockstep with us, if you believe EVERYTHING is political and must be vetted for ideolgical appropriateness, well, you clearly are one to see threats where none exists.
I fail to understand what it is about PBS that Conservatives find so threatening and offensive. It’s not as if National Public Radio is airing The Al Franken Show or getting commentary only from people with a Left-leaning agenda to push. Or is it the simple fact that PBS is so demonstrably apolitical?
Of course, if you’re a committed, slash-and-burn Republican, those who do not slavishly push a Right-wing agenda MUST be Liberal mouthpieces, no? What a load of crap….
I have listened patiently to years of right-wing bull about liberal bias in the media, but let us be perfectly clear about what is happening at PBS. Big Bird is not in favor of affirmative action. Bert and Ernie are not gay. Miss Piggy is not a feminist. “The Three Tenors,” “Antiques Roadshow,” “Masterpiece Theater,” “Wall Street Week” and nature programs do not have a political agenda. “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” is biased in favor of boring, old, white guys who appear on painfully well-balanced panels. “Washington Week in Review” is a showcase for “Inside the Beltway,” conventional wisdom, power-parroting, political-geekhead, Establishment journalism — there is nothing liberal about it.
But there is a plot to politicize public broadcasting. It is plain as a pikestaff, and it is coming from the Right. It is obvious, undeniable and happening right now. The Bush administration is introducing a political agenda to public broadcasting. They are using the lame pretext that PBS is somehow liberal to justify it into a propaganda organ for the government. That is precisely what the board of CPB was set up to prevent 40 years ago; it is there to be a firewall between public broadcasting and political pressure. Ken Tomlinson is a disgrace to the purpose of that board, he has a political agenda and is engaging in a raw display of ideological bullying. The right-wingers in the House of Representatives are backing his power play with a threat to cut off funding for PBS entirely.
Tomlinson’s claim of liberal bias at PBS is based on the program “NOW with Bill Moyers,” even though Moyers’ program frequently featured guests on the Right. Moyers is now retired, and the show has been cut to half an hour. Tomlinson “balanced” it with a weekly program by the editorial writers of the Wall Street Journal, who don’t even bother to pretend to be objective: They are right-wing beyond argument. Tomlinson actually spent $10,000 of the taxpayers’ money to pay some consultant to find bias in Moyers’ program but has never released the results of that “study.”
The implied argument here, of course, is that since PBS exists largely on taxpayer dollars, it should be a mouthpiece for the dominant political force. Republicans won the White House and both houses of Congress in November; ergo, they have won the right to bend NPR to their will. To the victor goes the spoils, no??
How bad are things getting? Well, there is no doubt about the Right-wing credentials of Ken Tomlinson and his supporting cast. If he had a shred of human decency remaining, George W. Bush would be ashamed to have put forth such a transparently craven effort to politicize one of Washington’s most venerable and apolitical institutions.
Tomlinson, himself a former head of Voice of America in the Reagan administration and a retired editor Reader’s Digest, has been an active right-winger since I first met him in 1974. He is also the Bush-appointed chair of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and other official arms of the government’s propaganda machine….
His choice for president of the CPB is Patricia Harrison, who is such a Republican activist she was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee, where she was particularly noted for attacking Hillary Clinton. This is beyond open partisanship. Harrison is currently at State, where she oversees that department’s propaganda arm, including the production “news segments” openly intended to support Bush administration policy. She has testified before Congress about the value of such “news segments” in swaying public opinion.
Time was when both Republicans and Democrats recognized and respected the apolitical nature of PBS. Both parties worked to protect it from whatever political winds happened to be blowing through Washington at any point in time. This bipartisan recognition of the importance of maintaining PBS’ independence survived Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, but it appears that PBS may not survive the pillaging of George W. Bush.
When Richard Nixon attacked PBS 35 years ago, the Republican chairman of CPB resigned in protest over the political interference. The impeccably Republican Ralph Rogers of Dallas led a nationwide effort to stop the malicious meddling. Where’s a decent Republican when you need one?
In this day and age, finding a decent Republican in Washington is well nigh impossible. Talk about the very definition of “oxymoron”.
Republicans are attempting to convert a historically apolitical and balanced media institution into a public-funded mirror of the Fox News Channel. Your tax dollars at work, eh?
Nice going, America. You elected these trolls. I hope you’re happy with the results, because you’re getting exactly the quality of leadership you deserve. Next time, trying thinking before voting, eh?….
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