CPB's dangerous right-wing swing

The radical right in this country doesn't like public radio - not because it's politically biased, but because it's a rare center of media power in this country that is not completely under the thumb of either right-wing demagogery or heavy commercial pressure. Now NPR is coming under pressure from a development that's been gathering steam for some time (and commented on previously in this blog): the attempt by the CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) and its Republican chair, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, to bludgeon public radio into ineffectiveness. The New York Times reports the latest battles in this dangerous new war:

In one of several points of conflict in recent months, the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which allocates federal funds for public radio and television, is considering a plan to monitor Middle East coverage on NPR news programs for evidence of bias, a corporation spokesman said on Friday.

The corporation's board has told its staff that it should consider redirecting money away from national newscasts and toward music programs produced by NPR stations.

And last week (as I noted in London Calling), Eric Boehlert in Salon had an extended piece on Tomlinson's effort to push PBS firmly to the right.

The thing is, everyone who's not an extreme right-winger knows that NPR and PBS does not display a systematic liberal bias (and polls show this is the case with the general public too). NPR is far from perfect, but it is trying to act as an independent and credible source of analysis of the government; and since the Republicans now almost control everything in government, it's inevitable that NPR's reports will likely tackle more Republican crimes and misdemeanors. That's not bias - it's responsible Fourth Estate journalism!

As for PBS, I've nothing but contempt for the notion that public television displays a left-wing bias. If anything, I think, many liberals see PBS's flagship "News Hour with Jim Lehrer" as leaning to the right. As for "NOW with Bill Moyers" (which has now lost Bill Moyers) - again, it's not bias that makes that show so compelling - it's serious journalism. I'm convinced that if the Democrats ran all of Washington today, Moyers would be getting stuck into them with just as much fervour.

Anyway, if PBS does become just another quiet and uncritical tool of those in power, then it will be one more place in the American media spectrum that is effectively off-limits to serious discussion of news and public affairs, and another blow to American democracy. As more and more Americans despair of receiving full, fair, accurate and critical news - of their own country as well as other countries - from U.S. media, so they will desperately look abroad for the news they need. The likely beneficiaries from this development will be overseas media - and especially those in Britain.