Right-wing Coup at PBS?
By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet.org
The
new Public Broadcasting boss either has an inappropriate sense of humor
or he's the latest participant in what the FCC called a 'right-wing
coup' of PBS.
Is Pat Mitchell the Martin Niemoller of public television?
You may
recognize this quote from the Lutheran anti-Nazi activist, who formed a
resistance movement and was then arrested and spent years in prison for
his beliefs:
“First,
they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not
a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not
speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the
Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came
for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
The
ongoing conservative coup at the quasi-governmental Corporation for
Public Broadcasting seems to have come at last for lame duck PBS
president and CEO Mitchell. The evidence is everywhere, as detailed
recently in articles in such mainstream mouthpieces as The New York
Times and The Washington Post.
Mitchell
is being publicly criticized as “tone deaf” by CPB chairman Kenneth
Tomlinson, after having been “jokingly” told by him to ensure that PBS
programming better reflect a Republican “mandate.”
Meanwhile, as the Post noted (in an April 22 article “PBS Scrutiny Raises Political Antennas” by Paul Farhi):
“Liberal
commentator Bill Moyers is out on PBS stations. Buster the animated
rabbit is under a cloud of suspicion. And right-wing yakkers from the
Wall Street Journal editorial page have been handed their own public
television chat show.”
In
addition, CPB officials recently appointed for the first time in
history two “ombudsmen” to review PBS news and public affairs programs
(such as the award-winning “Frontline” and “The NewsHour with Jim
Lehrer”) for evidence of bias – without bothering to inform Mitchell.
They also insisted for the first time on tying new federal funding (CPB
provides nearly $30 million annually to PBS) to an agreement that
commits PBS to strict “objectivity and balance” in each of its programs
– something that, according to the PBS general counsel, amounts to
“government encroachment on and supervision of program content,
potentially in violation of the First Amendment.”
(Click here to read the complete article.)
ACTION:
Let the
CPB know that it is the left and not the right that has been
traditionally excluded from public broadcasting. Remind them that
public broadcasting is supposed to serve as a platform for dissenting
and controversial views – not simply another forum for conservative and
corporate voices.
CONTACT:
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Phone Numbers:
202-879-9600
800-272-2190
comments@cpb.org
As always, please remember that your comments have more impact if you maintain a polite tone.
(For more information, click here.)
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