Former US public broadcasting chairman Kenneth Tomlinson resigns in disgrace

Tomlinson, a former director of the Voice of America in the Reagan administration and editor-in-chief or Reader’s Digest, was appointed to the CPB by Bill Clinton and elected chair of its board in September 2003. His term as chairman expired in September 2005.

The New York Times reported November 4 that Tomlinson is under investigation for possible misuse of federal money and the use of phantom or unqualified employees in his other position as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a post that he still maintains. The latter supervises the US government’s foreign broadcasting operations, including Radio Martí, Radio Sawa and al-Hurra, Washington’s Arab-language propaganda vehicle.

CPB inspector general Kenneth Konz has been investigating Tomlinson’s attempt to impose a partisan Republican agenda on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and other publicly-funded outlets. Among other activities, Tomlinson allegedly hired consultants and lobbyists without notifying the agency’s board.

The CPB chairman waged war in particular against “Now with Bill Moyers,” hosted by the liberal muckraker and former Johnson administration official.

In December 2003, Tomlinson sent a letter to Pat Mitchell, then president and chief executive of PBS, alleging that the Moyers program “does not contain anything approaching the balance the law requires for public broadcasting.”

Soon thereafter, Tomlinson paid a consultant $10,000 to monitor Moyers’ program for three months. According to the New York Times, “The reports Mr. Tomlinson saw placed the program’s guests in categories like ‘anti-Bush,’ ‘anti-business’ and ‘anti-Tom DeLay,’ referring to the House majority leader, corporation officials said. The reports found the guests were overwhelmingly anti-Bush, a conclusion Mr. Moyers disputed.”

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/nov2005/toml-n08.shtml