The leaning tower of PBS
SAN FRANCISCO — Public television officials are increasingly fearful that PBS is reemerging as a political football after a series of efforts by Republicans to promote more conservative perspectives on the taxpayer-supported network.
Station managers and programmers gathered here for two public broadcasting conferences last week expressed growing alarm about recent actions by officials of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the private nonprofit agency charged with distributing federal funds to public broadcasters.
Kenneth Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the agency, has called for more conservative voices in PBS programming and recently hired a former White House official to help set up an ombudsman's office to evaluate the fairness and balance of public television and radio. Meanwhile, PBS itself has reined in several controversial programs, taking steps some public TV advocates see as self-censorship.
Some believe the Bush Administration is using its allies at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to undermine PBS, much as President Richard Nixon and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sought to withdraw support for the system in past years.
"There is no smoking gun, but when things begin to add up in aggregate, you can really only draw one small subset of conclusions
In an interview, Tomlinson strongly disputed the notion that he is attempting to muzzle public broadcasters, saying he just wants to strengthen PBS by making it more balanced. He also denied that the Bush administration was behind any of his actions.
"There has been absolutely no contact from anyone at the White House to me saying we need to do this or that with public broadcasting," said Tomlinson, a former editor in chief of Readers Digest who was appointed to the board by then-President Bill Clinton.
But the consternation has risen to such a level that Tomlinson said he is worried about how it will impact PBS, which is facing a 25% cut in federal funding next year. The agency chairman said he plans to meet with Common Cause and other public interest groups that have expressed concern about the recent developments to reassure them about his intentions.
"I'm a fan of public broadcasting," he said. "I'm going to reach out to liberal advocacy groups and assure them that I wouldn't touch a hair on their favorite programs
