Yesterday, two congressmen called for an investigation into reports that
the Republican Chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Ken
Tomlinson, is pushing for political control over public broadcasting.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting or CPB is a private, nonprofit
entity financed by Congress to ensure the vitality of public television
and radio. CPB develops programming for National Public Radio, Public
Radio International and PBS. Appointees of President Bush currently
control the majority of seats on CPB’s eight-member board.
Wisconsin Democrat, David Obey, and Michigan Democrat, John Dingell,
requested that the Inspector General for the CPB, investigate whether
the CPB is violating the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. This act
prohibits interference by Federal officials over the content and
distribution of public programming, and forbids "political or other
tests" from being used in CPB hiring decisions.
The letter from the congressmen came after a flurry of high profile
personnel changes and revelations that have sparked controversy and
charges that CBP is moving to the right. In April, the CBP board did not
renew the contract of its chief executive, Kathleen Cox. Board Chairman
Kenneth Tomlinson tapped Ken Ferree -- a former top aide to Michael
Powell at the Federal Communications Commission – to be her temporary
replacement. Ferree alarmed many when he suggested in a recent New York
Times magazine article that he didn’t watch much PBS or listen to NPR.
Also in April, CPB appointed a pair of veteran journalists to review
public TV and radio programming for evidence of bias - the first time in
CPB’s 38-year history that it has established such positions. In an
article in the Washington Post, an anonymous senior FCC official was
quoted as saying that the CPB, "is engaged in a systematic effort not
just to sanitize the truth, but to impose a right-wing agenda on PBS.
It’s almost like a right-wing coup. It appears to be orchestrated."
And last week, a report in the New York Times revealed that Tomlinson
hired an outside consultant last year to keep track of the political
leanings of guests on the PBS program Now! With Bill Moyers. The paper
also reported that Tomlinson had worked to kill a legislative proposal
that would have required more radio and TV veterans on the CPB Board and
he has made clear that a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National
Committee, Assistant Secretary of State Patricia Harrison, is his
preferred choice for the vacant CPB presidency.
In response to the Times article, Tomlinson published an Op-Ed in the
Washington Times writing "To me and many other supporters of public
broadcasting the image of the left-wing bias of "NOW" -- unchallenged by
a balancing point of view on public broadcasting’s Friday evening lineup
-- was unhealthy. Indeed, it jeopardized essential support for public TV."
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