Public Broadcasting Under Fire

Public Broadcasting Under Fire

In recent years, there has been a slow, steady movement by conservatives to undermine and cut funding for public broadcasting. Over the past two decades, political conservatives have been targeting the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) with public relations campaigns designed to rein in PBS’s independence and cut into its public and congressional support. Recently, opponents of public broadcasting have kicked their assault into high gear. Right-wingers are taking over the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) – the agency that maintains a buffer between the partisan government and independent public broadcast networks. They are working to put a conservative slant on broadcasting, and this week conservatives in the House voted to cut all federal funding for public broadcasting – placing beloved shows like Sesame Street and countless others in danger.

• The new head of the CPB is blatantly trying to undermine the independence of public broadcasters. CPB’s new chairman is the staunchly conservative Kenneth Tomlinson. Since taking the post, he has consulted with the White House to formulate guidelines for appointing two ombudsmen to monitor public broadcasting content. Against the suggestion of top public broadcasting officials, Tomlinson hired the ombudsmen, who both have direct ties to conservatives. Even the Organization of News Ombudsmen didn’t trust their independence.
  
  
• Tomlinson secretly hired conservative lobbyists to investigate programming on public television. Tomlinson gave thousands of dollars to lobbyists who tracked “liberal bias” on shows such as NOW with Bill Moyers – without the consent of the CPB board. As a result, Tomlinson is under investigation by the CPB’s inspector general for these handouts. Among the lobbyists hired is Brian Darling – the man behind the infamous Terry Schiavo talking points memo from Sen. Mel Martinez’s (R-FL) office.
  
  
• Conservatives are out of touch with the American public when it comes to public broadcasting. Poll after poll shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans support public broadcasting. In addition, the vast majority of Americans find that public broadcasting is fair and evenhanded in its presentation of the news. These findings came from a poll that Tomlinson himself commissioned for the CPB. Tomlinson buried the findings in an annual report to Congress without releasing them to the press or even sharing them with PBS and NPR.