Variety: Mitchell Says PBS not tilting to the right

[villager]

Mitchell: PBS not tilting to the right

Pubcaster chief defends Carlson

By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK


PBS toppertopper Pat Mitchell on Thursday vigorously defended the pubcasterpubcaster's decision to give conservative commentator Tucker Carlson his own Friday night show, saying it wasn't an attempt to bowbow to the prevailing powers in Washington and take a turn to the right.

Opening up the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Los Angeles, Mitchell also revealed that it was outgoing Motion Picture Assn. of America CEO-prexy Jack Valenti who encouraged her to apply for his job.

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A substantial part of Mitchell's appearance at TCA was spent answering questions about Carlson's new half-hour show, "Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered," which bows this fall at 10 p.m. ET. Carlson will keep his gig at CNN, where he is a political analyst and co-host of CNN's afternoon political shout-down "Crossfire."

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Mitchell said if anything, PBS is simply trying to widen the tent and express a wide variety of opinions. But she was repeatedly questioned as to why PBS would hire someone who already has a spot on the airwaves if the intent was to provide a forum for more diverse voices.
Without revealing the identities of three other people making test pilots, Mitchell said Carlson's pilot was by far the most interesting.

"Unfiltered" is being execexec produced by veteran news producer Steve Friedman, who has exec produced NBC News' "Today" and "Nightly News." Recently, he also consulted on Dennis Miller's new talk show on CNBC.

Carlson said he didn't know--and didn't care--whether there was some master plan on the part of PBS in signing his show, which is being produced by WETA in Washington. He agreed that he is conservative on most issues, but said he recently had an about-face regarding the war In Iraq, in part prompted by a visit to Baghdad. He said he now believes that the Bush administration is reckless when it comes to Iraq.

Carlson said he has no interest in becoming a "self-grandizing" talk show host along the lines of Fox News Channel's ultra-conservative Bill O'Reilly. "I have no respect for that," Carlson said.

more at www.variety.com (subscription site)

[StClone]

1. ...express a wide variety of opinions...

So now innuendo, minutia, hot air, stupid commentary and out right lies are part of PBS... sounds like a leap right to me