Magpie

Monday, May 2, 2005

Get ready for the Propaganda Broadcast Service.

A few days ago, we called your attention to a CJR Daily post about how Dubya's administration is trying to remold public TV and radio its own right-wing image. The CJR writer complained about how this important story was being overlooked by much of the press.

That complaint is slightly less accurate today, as the NY Times is running a story on the new right-wing chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has already started to force the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to 'correct' its supposed 'liberal bias.'

Without the knowledge of his board, the chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, contracted last year with an outside consultant to keep track of the guests' political leanings on one program, "Now With Bill Moyers."

In late March, on the recommendation of administration officials, Mr. Tomlinson hired the director of the White House Office of Global Communications as a senior staff member, corporation officials said. While she was still on the White House staff, she helped draft guidelines governing the work of two ombudsmen whom the corporation recently appointed to review the content of public radio and television broadcasts.

Mr. Tomlinson also encouraged corporation and public broadcasting officials to broadcast "The Journal Editorial Report," whose host, Paul Gigot, is editor of the conservative editorial page of The Wall Street Journal. And while a search firm has been retained to find a successor for Kathleen A. Cox, the corporation's president and chief executive, whose contract was not renewed last month, Mr. Tomlinson has made clear to the board that his choice is Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee who is now an assistant secretary of state.

And that's not all. Read the whole story.

While the Times story is definitely a step forward in how 'mainstream' US media are covering the changes at the CPB, the story is nowhere near as good as it could (or should) have been. Too often, the piece breaks down into 'he said-she said' presentation of opposing quotes in place of analysis. And, despite the damning evidence that CPB chair Tomlinson's own activities provide for the thesis that Dubya's administration is trying to turn public broadcasting into a propaganda arm for the government, the story wriggles and squirms in order to keep from taking a position on whether the facts show that this is indeed the case.

And we would have felt a whole lot better about the story had the Times put it on page 1 (or at least in the main news section) rather than burying it in the Arts section.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:04 AM | Get permalink