ALERT: Save PBS from partisan operatives

[caligirl]

After reading the NYT article about the hiring of Bush Administration people by PBS Chairman Tomlinson, I was delighted to get this petition in my email. I thought a lot of you would like to sign this with some juicy comments of your own.
http://www.freepress.net/action/pbs

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/arts/television/02public.html?th&emc=th


Kenneth Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) -- the government-funded organization that was designed to shield PBS from political pressure -- is aggressively pressing PBS to correct what he considers "liberal bias."

This top-down partisan meddling goes against the very nature of PBS and the local stations we trust. Let the people speak and decide the future of PBS, not secret dealings by White House operatives.

Sign this petition to demand that Congress, the CPB and PBS station managers remove Tomlinson and support town meetings in your community on the future of PBS.

[keopeli]

1. Good luck, caligirl, but I'm afraid it's a lost cause

I've written off PBS and NPR after they caved to the neocons back in 2001 and 2002. When you are outgunned, you must pick your battles. Soon, PBS will be carrying right-wing religious programming and solicitation, I guess. But, I won't know because I won't be watching it.

[Kolesar]

4. NPR hired a new news director about a year ago

I thought their programming had improved a bit.
Edit: I just read the NY Times article. What a fright.

[sui generis]

2. done

[wtbymark]

3. wrong assumption, inneffective action

"the hiring of Bush Administration people by PBS Chairman Tomlinson"

"Kenneth Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)"

PBS and the CPB are not the same thing, please make the distinction. It is true that the CPB is the 'middle man' between the gov't and PBS, but they are not the same entity. And i will say again, that within 8-10 years there will be NO CPB, at all. Bitch at whom you like at CPB, they're not going to listen, their board is appointed by the administration, so getting rid of them will be next to impossible. Want to change it? Vote out the repugs.

[Wilms]

5. Done. Kick. n/t

[Kolesar]

6. I wrote an answer in the freepress comments field

Anyone who observed the media's failure to criticize Bush's flimsy case for war on Iraq would have to consider that the media is a right wing enterprise. Public broadcasting was more correct in its coverage, but it was hardly left wing. There was enough data there in early 2003 to savage the Bush administration, but public broadcasting did nothing of the sort. They only wrote meek critiques of the lies Bush was telling about weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein's ties to terrorists. This is an obvious right wing power grab. So much for the myth of the liberal media.

[sendero]

7. Exactly..

.... they have already co-opted NPR, PBS isn't going to be far behind.

I'm not sure what the answer is, perhaps if they'd all sworn off all govt financing (it's only a small % I believe) they could have maintained their integrity.

As it is I fully expect PBS to follow in the footsteps of NPR, another media outlet that everyone calls "liberal" for no reason I can discern.

[wtbymark]

8. heed my heads-up

i've explained in previous post - it may look 'not too good' right now, and yes it is a large percentage of the operating budget, BUT, in 8-10 years there will be no CPB and no need for government funding, and probably not even a need for pledge- all stations will be solvent.

[VOX]

9. Done.

:kick: