PBS fighting back

It's been a scary year for PBS so far. With the partisan CPB chair Ken Tomlinson in charge, it has seen its integrity attacked and now it is threatened with a massive (46%) budget cut. (See, e.g., here and here and here for previous mediaville comments on this matter.)

Tomlinson, remember, has charged that PBS and NPR has a systematic left-wing bias - without providing any evidence of such bias - and, dangerously, he has "appointed two ombudsmen - one for the left and one for the right." (NPR's own ombudsman addresses the issue here).

There is also increasing evidence that Tomlinson has explicitly "injected partisanship into the agency" by actions "including his hiring of a former White House official to develop an ombudsman's office and his push for PBS to add conservative programming." Tomlinson's reported pick for a new CEO - Patricia de Stacy Harrison, an assistant secretary of State who served as co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee - has drawn objections from public broadcasters and Democrats." And his hiring of a shadowy outside consultant by the name of Fred Mann "to keep track of the guests' political leanings on one program, 'Now with Bill Moyers,'" has also shocked people.

It seems that a backlash against Tomlinson's partisanship is finally gathering steam: The CPB's inspector general is investigating Tomlinson's record. Pressure to get rid of Tomlinson is building. Sixteen Democratic senators, including Charles Schumer, are calling on President Bush to remove Tomlinson. (See the New York Times report here.) These are not radical liberals: even Joe Lieberman is on board. So far, Bush has resisted calls for Tomlinson's removal.

Meanwhile, since Tomlinson shows little interest in fighting for a restoration of CPB's slashed funding (he "issued a relatively tepid statement last week when the House Appropriations Committee approved a 46% cut to public broadcasting "), PBS President Pat Mitchell has stepped in to lead the fight, focusing on the power of PBS's children's programming. Republicans in the past have rued the day they mess with Barney and Sesame Street. Now I'm not the greatest fan of Mitchell, but she's a whole lot better than Tomlinson, who's shown himself to be a partisan hack, plain and simple.