Center for Creative Voices in Media Blog

Bill Moyers on PBS

Bill Moyers gave a wonderful speech about public television, and its unique role in American media and democracy.  Link: Working ForChange-Address to PBS annual meeting.

Moyers Has His Say

Excellent interview with Bill Moyers concerning the political pressure put on PBS and him by the right-wing partisans such as resigned in disgrace CPB Chair Kenneth Y. Tomlinson.  That his independent and so often unheard point of view is now off the air is a tragedy for all Americans.  It's why we fight for more independent and diverse voices in media.  Link: Broadcasting & Cable: The Business of Television.

More Hanky Panky at CPB

NY Times reports that an outside consultant hired by CPB has found a lot more dirt on CPB than just the shenanigans of now resigned in disgrace Chair Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, reported last week by the CPB Inspector General (see below).  "Among the contracts the auditors' report questioned, they said, was a consulting agreement worth almost $500,000 with a former president of the corporation, Robert T. Coonrod. The contract was approved by the corporation's board while Mr. Coonrod was still president to get around a statutory limit on his salary. Federal tax records show he was paid $174,000 in his final year of service."  Link: Public TV Overseer Faces New Questions - New York Times.

The danger here, of course, is that this alleged malfeasance by the CPB Board will end up giving the critics of public broadcasting the ammo they need to reduce or eliminate its government funding.  Instead, what's needed is a new CPB Board dedicated to public broadcasting's mission of providing the independent, diverse, local, and original programming that cannot be found on commercial television. Don't throw the public broadcasting baby out with the dirty CPB bathwater.

Tomlinson Guilty, CPB IG Finds

Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, former Chair of CPB who resigned last week ahead of the release today of a highly critical CPB Inspector General's Report, apparently was even more involved in imposing conservative ideology on PBS programming than originally thought.  Says the Report, available at the link below:  "We found evidence that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) former Chairman violated statutory provisions and the Director’s Code of Ethics by dealing directly with one of the creators of a new public affairs program during negotiations with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the CPB over creating the show. Our review also found evidence that suggests “political tests” were a major criteria used by the former Chairman in recruiting a President/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for CPB, which violated statutory prohibitions against such practices."

The Inspector General's Report also refutes the attempt by Tomlinson and the CPB Board to blame Tomlinson's offenses on CPB staffers:  "... we believe the aforementioned violations were primarily the result of the former Chairman’s personal actions to accomplish his various initiatives..."

The NY Times is similarly damning: "Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting concluded today that its former chairman repeatedly broke federal law and its own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias.  A scathing report by the corporation's inspector general described a dysfunctional organization that violated the Public Broadcasting Act, which created the corporation and was written to insulate programming decisions from politics."  Link here.  

Is this kind of stuff indictable?  Link: CPB Inspector General's Report.

Tomlinson Takes a Hike at CPB

Although Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, now former Chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting disputes it, a confidential report by the inspector general of the corporation into accusations about Mr. Tomlinson's use of corporation money to promote more conservative programming appears to have turned up enough dirt to force the CPB Board to oust him.

The findings reportedly include impropriety in Mr. Tomlinson's decision to hire a researcher to monitor the political leanings of guests on the public policy program "Now" with Bill Moyers; his use of a White House official to set up an ombudsman's office to scrutinize programs for political balance; and secret payments approved by Mr. Tomlinson to two Republican lobbyists.  Tomlinson reportedly left with a blast, saying "I am highly skeptical of so-called nonpartisanship in public
broadcasting because that appears to mean the same old liberals making
the same old decisions," he said.

But, OTOH, those "so-called nonpartisans" never had to leave CPB under a cloud for misuse of public funds.  The damage Mr. Tomlinson has done to CPB and public broadcasting is incalculable.  And with his hand-picked minions securely burrowed into the CPB Board and leadership, reversing that damage and reconstituting a vigorous and vibrant public broadcasting that serves the American public in ways that commercial broadcasting doesn't -- well, that appears to be a long ways off.

Link: Broadcasting Ex-Chairman Is Removed From Board - New York Times.

CV Calls for Good Government at CPB

In a letter to Chairman Ken Tomlinson and the board Wednesday, Common Cause, Center for Digital Democracy, Creative Voices, and Media Access Project, asked the CPB board to support a number of resolutions, including:

    *Not letting the chairman approve any outside contract without the board's knowledge and approval (directed at Tomlinson's now-controversial hiring of a consultant to gauge bias in noncom shows)
    * Not hiring somebody to gauge the bias in noncom shows on public broadcasting  without first informing public broadcasting you're doing it
    * Streaming, televising or otherwise making its board meetings available in real time to the public, and then archived for later perusal
    * Making time for public comment at open meetings and providing sufficient notice
    * Making any board member conflict of interest statements available online

Link: Broadcasting & Cable: The Business of Television.

Shocking Development: Please Sit Down Before You Read This

The ombudsmen hired by CPB's "liberal advocacy jounalism'-obsessed Chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, to make sure PBS's programming is "fair and balanced," Fox News-style, have issued their first report. Writes the Wash Post: "So what kind of slanted reporting have Ken Bode and William Schulz uncovered since they began work three months ago?  As it turns out, not much. Actually, as it turns out, none at all."

Link: Two Big Thumbs-Up For Public Radio, TV.

Partisan Takes Over CPB

So, if you were on a Board of Directors of a company formed by the American public to support public broadcasting in a strictly non-partisan way, and public broadcasting was in one of the worst crises of its existence, and you needed to hire a new president, you'd hire a former head of one of the partisan political parties who had no public broadcasting experience whatsoever, right?

Well, that's what the Board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting did yesterday, hiring Patricia S. Harrison as its new President.  Oy vey.  Link: Public Broadcasting Chief Is Named, Raising Concerns - New York Times.

Emergency Rally on Hill for Kids TV

Today at 1 p.m., Cong. Ed Markey and our beloved Advisor Peggy Charren, the Mother of Children's TV, are holding an emergency rally on Capitol Hill at the Cannon House Office Building, to protest the House cuts in funding for public TV kids' programming.  Be there!

Link: Broadcasting & Cable: The Business of Television.  Subscription May be Required.

Two Front Attack on PBS -- Neutering and Starvation

Yesterday's House committee action putting public broadcasting on a starvation budget, including eliminating all funding for "Ready to Learn" children's programming such as Sesame Street, opens a dangerous second front in the war against public broadcasting and, more generally, independent media.  One front is the neutering of PBS in the guise of making it more "fair and balanced" -- Fox News-style, engineered by CPB Chair Kenneth Y. Tomlinson.  Apparently, this has so disillusioned many of PBS's private donors -- who WANT independent media that is not under the control of the government -- that they have reduced contributions.  This funding starvation is exacerbated by yesterday's House action, decimating PBS's federal funding.  Link: Steep Cut Proposed for Public Broadcasting - New York Times.

Please write to your representatives urging them to support PBS and independent media -- our democracy and culture depend on it.  Common Cause's excellent and easy-to-send email letter is here.