On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 17:09:29 GMT, David wrote:


DON'T MISS

TALKING POINTS: Public Broadcasting Under Fire.

SNIP

MEDIA
Big Bird Gets Plucked

For more than two decades, "political conservatives have been
targeting PBS ... with a stream of public relations campaigns designed
to rein in public broadcasting's independence and cut into its public
and congressional support." Both the Nixon and Reagan administrations
attacked public broadcasting and, as speaker of the House, Newt
Gingrich tried to end its funding. E-mail petitions -- with "Save Big
Bird!" subject lines -- that implored you to save public broadcasting
from destruction used to be the stuff of urban legend. But leave it to
conservatives to ultimately succeed in turning fiction into reality.
Right-wingers are taking over the board of the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting (CPB), the agency intended to provide a buffer between
independent public broadcast networks and the partisan government. And
they are working overtime to put a conservative slant on programming,
a move that completely undermines the non-interference mandate of the
1967 Public Broadcasting Act. This week right-wingers in the House
voted to cut all federal funding for public broadcasting within the
next two years. Unless the public demands respect for independent and
public broadcasting, soon nobody will be able to tell you how to get
to Sesame Street. Write Congress and demand that they save PBS from
partisan operatives.

TOMLINSON'S PUBLIC CRONIES: Staunchly conservative CPB Chairman
Kenneth Tomlinson "secretly drafted a White House official to
formulate 'guiding principles' for the appointment of two ombudsmen to
monitor and critique all public broadcasting content." Then, against
the suggestion of top public broadcasting officials, Tomlinson hired
the ombudsmen. Both have very clear ties back to conservatives and
even the Organization of News Ombudsmen, "which represents nearly a
hundred print and broadcast ombudsmen from around the world," doesn't
trust their independence. The organization rebuffed the CPB
appointees' attempts to become full members of the group. Tomlinson is
also working to get the former co-chairman of the Republican National
Committee into the chief executive position at CPB. Additionally,
Tomlinson wants to hire the conservative "who pioneered the myth of
the 'liberal media'" to review NPR coverage.

TOMLINSON'S NOT SO PUBLIC CRONIES: That's the stuff Tomlinson is doing
on the surface. Without informing the rest of the board, Tomlinson
secretly doled out thousands of dollars to conservative lobbyists. The
CPB's inspector general is now investigating these Tomlinson handouts,
as well as other undisclosed money he gave to "a man in Indiana who
provided him with reports about the political leanings of guests"
invited on the show of media legend Bill Moyers. The consultant
"[tracked] 'anti-Bush' and 'anti-Tom DeLay' comments by the guests."
CPB was "created by Congress to serve as a 'heat shield' to protect
public broadcasting from political interference ... Tomlinson is
turning it into a right-wing blowtorch."

THE RIGHT WING'S DARLING: One of the lobbyists secretly hired by
Tomlinson is Brian Darling. This is the same Brian Darling who "served
as a top aide to Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) but resigned after the
disclosure that he had written a memorandum describing how to exploit
politically the life-support case of Terri Schiavo." Initially,
Martinez denied any association with the memo and Republicans
"[accused] Democrats of concocting the document as a dirty trick." In
the document, which Martinez handed over to another senator and
described as "talking points -- something that we're working on here,"
Darling calls the Schiavo case "a great political issue" that would
rouse the pro-life base.

THE POLL NUMBERS THE RIGHT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE: Publicly,
Tomlinson continues to maintain that he is "concerned about
perceptions that not all parts of the political spectrum are reflected
on public broadcasting." What Tomlinson isn't talking about are his
own poll numbers, which say the exact opposite. Earlier this year, the
CPB hired the right-leaning polling firm Tarrance Group to investigate
these political bias claims. After conducting two "National Public
Opinions," pollsters found 80 percent of Americans saw PBS programming
as "fair and balanced" -- and they didn't mean like Fox News -- while
90 percent believed that PBS "provides high quality programming."
Furthermore, a majority of respondents called PBS "more trustworthy
than CNN, Fox News Channel and other mainstream news outlets."
Tomlinson "buried [the results] in an annual report to Congress"
without releasing them to the press or even sharing them with PBS and
NPR.

HOUSE CALLS FOR ELMO'S HEAD: Under a bill approved by the House
Appropriations Commitee, federal funding of CPB, which "channels
funding to the Public Broadcasting Service, National Public Radio and
individual public radio and TV stations, would be slashed by $100
million. By the year 2008, all federal money would be gone. A senior
official at National Public Radio "blamed" the funding cuts "on
Tomlinson's "'irresponsible' charges of political bias." The
accusation is understandable; the "political bias" claim was the same
obfuscation used back when Gingrich tried to gut CPB in 1994. And
though CPB is "supposed to encourage the growth of public
broadcasting," its own chairman seems to have no problem with the
House's decision. Tomlinson "rejected a proposed statement by senior
officials at the corporation denouncing [the] vote."



Where can we complain about the cuts - Congressmen?, that will do alot
of good HAH!

Threaten them all about being evicted at the fall election - maybe
that will work!

Warren