[Dialogue] Not your Father's PBS

[george]

Looks like the right is doing a thorough job.
George Holcombe

From: 	  progress at americanprogressaction.org
	Subject: 	Progress Report: Tweedledee, Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber
	Date: 	April 26, 2005 10:16:28 AM CDT
	To: 	  geowanda at earthlink.net
	Reply-To: 	  progress at americanprogressaction.org

MEDIA
The Privatization of PBS

According to people within the Public Broadcasting Service, the 
supposedly politically independent PBS "is being forced to toe a more 
conservative line in its programming" by its oversight agency, the 
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is being stacked with 
right-wing appointees. Over the past few years, President Bush has 
attempted to flood the CPB board with partisan political operatives. 
The result, according to a senior FCC official, is that today 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."

STACKED BOARD: Created in the 1960s, CPB was purposefully designed as 
an independent body in order to provide a buffer between the 
independent public broadcast networks and the partisan government. In 
fact, Congress funds CPB two years in advance to "shield it from 
momentary bursts of partisan anger" and keep PBS safe from the muck of 
daily politics. That was then. Now, the chairman of the CPB board is 
Kenneth Tomlinson, a close friend of uber-strategist Karl Rove and an 
individual who has contributed thousands to Republicans over the past 
decade. President Bush also nominated Gay Hart Gaines and Cheryl 
Halpern, individuals who have given more than $816,000 to conservative 
causes over the past 14 years, to the CPB Board of Directors. 
Interestingly enough, Gaines was a key fundraiser for Newt Gingrich 
back when the House speaker campaigned to "zero out" CPB funding and 
privatize PBS.

A CORPORATION IN HIS OWN IMAGE: In recent months, at least three senior 
CPB officials – all of whom had left-leaning associations – have 
departed or been dismissed, making the effects of the stacked deck even 
more apparent. Last week, CPB's board decided not to renew the contract 
of its chief executive, Kathleen Cox, choosing instead to replace her 
with Kenneth Ferree. Before becoming the chief executive of CPB, Ferree 
was at the Federal Communications Commission, where he "played a 
significant role in the failed effort to loosen rules" for giant media 
conglomerates to consolidate their empires. (It was backlash from the 
American public that defeated his efforts.) Now Ferree is at CPB, but 
not because of his love for public broadcasting. In an interview with 
the New York Times Magazine, Ferree admitted to not watching much PBS, 
not even its flagship show, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, which he called 
"slow." In Ferree's own words, "I don't always want to sit down and 
read Shakespeare, and Lehrer is akin to Shakespeare. Sometimes I really 
just want a People magazine."

THE LYNN CHENEY SHOW: In addition to stacking the board of CPB, the 
administration hired Michael Pack, a producer with close ties to the 
Bush administration. How close? In 2002, Pack greeted outgoing PBS 
President Pat Mitchell at Vice President Cheney's house with an 
"inappropriate" proposal for a children's series featuring the vice 
president's wife, Lynn Cheney.

DESPERATELY SEEKING CENSORSHIP: The Public Broadcasting Act prohibits 
CPB from interfering with public TV's programming, but someone may need 
to remind its Board of Directors. During her confirmation hearings, new 
board member Cheryl Halpern advocated a policy of "aggressive" 
censorship and suggested CPB should be allowed to penalize and "remove 
physically" broadcasts it decides are unbalanced. In fact, media 
watchdog groups accused the Bush administration of using a "litmus 
test" to select board members; the White House reportedly sunk the 
candidacy of a nominee who stated CPB should intervene in programming 
only in "extraordinary circumstances." And now the current board is 
starting to do the job for which it was apparently hired, tightening 
its grasp over programming content. Earlier this year, for the first 
time in its history, the CPB insisted on tying any new PBS funding to 
"an agreement that would commit the network to strict 'objectivity and 
balance'" in its programs. But its supposed quest for "objectivity and 
balance" is decidedly subjective. On its website, the CPB claims it'll 
listen to the opinions of public officials and keep them under wraps: 
"These opinions may be expressed in … private conversations with CPB 
board members and other officials."

TILTING AT "LIBERAL" WINDMILLS: CPB's own research shows that there is 
already "objectivity and balance" within PBS. According to two 
different national polls and a series of focus group sessions, the 
American public thinks there is no real bias in PBS. The group Fairness 
and Accurate Reporting claims CPB has it wrong – public broadcasting 
isn't designed to balance a right/left tilt: "If anything, PBS (and 
public broadcasting in general) is theoretically designed to balance 
the voices that dominate the commercial media." The national media 
watchdog group continues on to point out, "As the 1967 Public 
Broadcasting Act proposed, public broadcasting should have 
'instructional, educational and cultural purposes' and should address 
'the needs of unserved and underserved audiences, particularly children 
and minorities.'"