A ‘Right-Wing Coup’ at PBS & the CPB?

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."

* Robert McChesney, professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author of eight books including Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times. He is the co-founder of Free Press which is organizing this week’s National Conference on Media Reform here in St. Louis.
* Jeffrey Chester, Executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.
* Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
* Tavis Smiley, hosts Tavis Smiley which airs nationally on PBS stations , and a radio show, The Tavis Smiley Show broadcasted by Public Radio International.
* Rep. David Obey, Democratic Congressman from Wisconsin

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