Aha, could this be why PBS is sidling to the right? The board of CPB.

[madfloridian]

Also I know NPR is doing the same a lot of the time. Is C-Span also under the jurisdiction of this Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

I believe they are this year starting to up the government donation to public broadcasting, and this could lead to government oversight and control.

Here are a couple of articles that I found, as I been in awe of the neocons on C-Span, and I have heard that some of the Republicans in the Senate were concerned that folks like Bill Moyers were still on public broadcasting.

Here is an article about concerns over the their new board members this year.
http://www.current.org/cpb/cpb0401politics.shtml

SNIP.."Two newly appointed CPB Board members are big Republican campaign donors whose alliances or statements call into question their suitability for the role, Common Cause has warned.

Together, CPB directors Gay Hart Gaines and Cheryl Halpern and their families have given more than $816,000 to Republican causes over the past 14 years, the political reform lobby said in a little-noticed news release before Christmas .

But the big problem for Common Cause was not the appointees' generosity to campaigns. The group notes that Gaines was a key fundraiser for Newt Gingrich a decade ago when the House speaker was campaigning to defund CPB, where Gaines is now a board member. In November, Halpern alarmed Common Cause and some pubcasters by suggesting that CPB should be given authority to impose accountability and penalties for broadcasts it deems unbalanced."

I can not find the research I did on this, but I remember that a senate committee of very right wing Republicans was investigating C-Span or PBS, not sure which for programming that Moyers did.

[intheflow]

1. My local PBS station was fundraising during "Newshour" tonight.

I called them to tell them why I was NOT pledging:

1) I watched "Newshour" tonight and heard about elections in Iraq and the Ukraine but nothing at all about the Congressional Judiciary Committee forum today; and

2) They are abdicating their responsibility to uphold the public trust. I always understood public television to be of the people and for the people. I refuse to support a station that ignores important stories in the public interest.

And of course, they can see that I have contributed in the past. BWAAAHAHAHA!

[madfloridian]

2. During a fundraiser, I heard the host say..."we are NOT going right wing."

I thought, how odd to say that. Methinks he denied too much.

[intheflow]

6. Wow! They must be hearing from their public.

And it doesn't sound like the public is very happy with public broadcasting.

And in Florida, no less. Thanks for the info.

[ooglymoogly]

15. i only donate to pbs for bill moyers now

and i make it very clear.

[whathappened]

3. pbs

is slowly drifting to the right , i have seen this coming alittle at a time , and then when bow tie boy made his way to pbs it was all over for me , they are now a right wing rag , after they get rid of bill

[sherilocks]

14. I emailed my local PBS station

and told them to forget further contributions and to stop calling me when the bow tie boy came on the air. I don't call it a slow drift, however, it's more like a landslide to the right.

[madfloridian]

4. More about possible influence on public programming.

July this year: The Testimony of
Ms. Kathleen A. Cox
President and Chief Executive Officer, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=1265&wit_id=3646

SNIP..."Freed from the day-to-day decisions about what program to air, CPB can take the long view. We can look at the system as a whole, not station by station, spotting problems and identifying possible solutions. And when there are unmet needs – for a certain kind of programming, or research, or training – we can step in to provide it. CPB is guided by the principle of localism – that local stations make the best decisions about public broadcasting in their own communities. But localism does not mean – and cannot mean – local only. CPB’s ability to direct resources to system-wide needs ultimately offers more benefits to individual stations than they would otherwise receive. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, CPB does for the community of stations what they “cannot do at all in their separate and individual capacities.” National programming, for example, is not something set apart from the work of stations, but a resource that draws viewers (and ultimately members), and that educates, informs, enlightens, and enables them to participate more fully in the lives of their communities. So CPB is conducting the biggest audience research project in public broadcasting history. The results will help producers and programmers ground decision-making about primetime public television in knowledge about audiences and members – effectively bringing audiences into the room when decisions are being made.

CPB’s view across the whole system informs more than programming. Just one example: CPB funded a study of public television finances that identified major gifts as an untapped revenue source for stations. (Just imagine the major gifts being from major corporations eventually)

PBS to fight for Federal funding.
http://www.beachbrowser.com/Archives/eVoid/July-99/PBS-Will-Fight-For-Federal-Funding.htm

Thoughts on the funding of public television and radio.
http://www.cybercollege.com/frtv/frtv027.htm
This one seems to just deny, deny and deny any influence from the government or elsewhere.

Not sure what is happening, but we had to quit watching most of TV or listening to most of NPR at times. Just some random thoughts about it.

I was teaching when the federal aide to schools really got started. We were all very concerned about the influence that would be exerted. We were right. Sometimes it was not too bad, but now that our government has become so corporate, it has had tragic influence.

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. I started to worry when they took money from Wal-Mart.....

and allowed them to spew their "We are really good for your community" propaganda tripe.

[intheflow]

7. Here ya go:

From a 1992 FAIR article.

[lcordero]

8. a few days ago

I turned the channel to PBS hoping that I would get some relief...what I got was some stupid bitch whoring for an invasion of Iran.

[pinniped]

9. When they stop showing NOVA then we're really fucked.

.

[intheflow]

12. No, it'll be when they cancel Frontline.

That's still the best documentary program on free (non-cable) tv. imho.

[DoNotRefill]

10. There's a PBS station...

that's wholly owned by the local school boards. It should qualify under FOIA, but they claim it doesn't. The school boards have basically been using the PBS station to do things that they don't want the public to know about via FOIA. We're talking about making it so that they can drastically cut educational services to handicapped kids without getting into trouble, and other such festive things.

[0rganism]

11. This has always been a risk of large-scale "public" broadcasting

Over the years, the control structure has become overwhelmed by corrupt bureaucrats and underwritten by "generous grants" from the same corporations who fund mainstream commercial media. Is the Newshour really going to tell you anything that Archer-Daniels-Midland doesn't want you to hear?

It's come down to ideological committment. They back theirs, and it's about time we just recognize this and prop our own media fighters by supporting true community media sources instead, whenever we can find them. Support your local cable access channels. Support FSTV, which reaches viewers worldwide on satellite and cable access television. Support community radio efforts like KBOO in Oregon and the Guy James Show in Florida. We need to support local indy press weeklies and helpful internet resources like buzzflash and bartcop and DU.

We can't rely on establishment media to bail us out of this mess. We've got to become the media and/or put our financial strength behind those of us who are actively in that process.

[JHB]

13. The current composition of the board has been the result of...

...over a decade's worth of RW threats and strong-arming, since it gets public money.

For an even more egregious example of RW/corporatist attempted takovers, look up the battle over the Pacifica Radio Network (home of Democracy Now!).