Probe exposes criminal methods in Republican right takeover of US Public TV

Tomlinson served as CPB chairman from September 2003 to September 2005. A right-wing Republican and long-time acquaintance of Bush’s chief political advisor Karl Rove, Tomlinson was formerly head of Voice of America. He resigned from the CPB board in early November after the first details of the inspector general’s report were reported in the press.

The report charges that Tomlinson repeatedly violated the Public Broadcasting Act and “ethical guidelines” in order to eliminate what he called “liberal bias” in public broadcasting.

The author of the report, Kenneth Konz, was hired as inspector general by the CPB in the 1990s after serving in the inspector general’s office at the Environmental Protection Agency. Konz indicated he will not seek prosecution of Tomlinson.

The report demonstrates the Bush administration’s contempt for the law and basic democratic rights. The White House engineered the takeover of the CPB board—which is supposed to be a “firewall” between programming and political influence—by right-wing operatives after having failed in attempts to cut off its funding.

The public broadcasting budget has been a target of right-wing attack for decades. As a consequence, local affiliates have had to rely more and more on corporate and private donations to sustain operations. However, efforts to completely shut down public radio and television have failed largely because they have broad popular support. They are seen by many as an alternative, however limited, to the barren fare offered by the corporate media.

According to the inspector general’s report, Tomlinson improperly involved himself in efforts to get $4 million for a program featuring editorial page writers from the Wall Street Journal. The inspector general found that the former CPB head “violated statutory provisions and the Directors Code of Ethics by dealing directly with one of the creators of a new public affairs program with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the CPB over creating the show.” It says he “admonished” other CPB senior executive staff not to hinder his plan to create a platform for the right-wing views of the Journal on public television.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/pbs-d01.shtml