CPB Report Charges Former Chair Tomlinson with Ethics Violations

The investigation, conducted by the Corporation’s Inspector General, Kenneth Konz, exposes extensive wrongdoing and political interference by CPB’s former chairman, Kenneth Tomlinson.

Tomlinson, a staunch conservative, was head of CPB until stepping down in September. He resigned from the Corporation’s Board on November 3rd, after Konz’s findings were presented to the board in a three day closed meeting held at an undisclosed location in Washington D.C.

The Inspector General’s report found that Tomlinson repeatedly violated the CPB’s contracting rules and code of ethics in order to promote conservatives in the organization. It documented numerous occasions in which Tomlinson ignored CPB procedures in trying to hire his own handpicked candidates to monitor programs that he accused of liberal bias. Earlier this year, it was revealed that Tomlinson hired a Republican operative to monitor the political leanings of shows hosted by Bill Moyers, Tavis Smiley and Diane Rehm. The report also found that Tomlinson had inappropriate involvement in the development of the “Journal Editorial Report,” a conservative public affairs magazine program that began airing on PBS last year.

The investigation also uncovered numerous emails between Tomlinson and White House staff about the hiring of Patricia Harrison, a former Republican Party Chairwoman, as the new CPB President. The report states, “while cryptic in nature, their timing and subject matter gives the appearance that the former chairman was strongly motivated by political considerations in filing the President/CEO position.”

Tomlinson released a statement yesterday, calling the report’s charges “malicious and inappropriate.” Despite all this, Tomlinson remains the Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors- a federal agency that oversees the U.S government’s international broadcasting services, including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and the Arabic-language satellite TV station Al –Hurra.

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/16/150242