WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's troubled outreach efforts to the Middle East and other areas of the world were dealt more bad news Tuesday with new allegations of impropriety by the man who oversees the federal government's broadcasts to foreign countries.
Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, a Bush appointee who chairs the Broadcasting Board of Governors, directed staff to do personal work and used government resources for his private racehorse operation, a new report by the State Department's inspector general indicates.
Forced to resign last year as head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting amid revelations of impropriety, Tomlinson also doubled-billed the Broadcasting Board of Governors for working some of the same days as at the CPB, according to the report, a summary of which was obtained by The Times.
"This is serious stuff," said Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village), who requested the investigation last year and was among three Democratic lawmakers who on Tuesday asked President Bush to remove Tomlinson.
"The role of the Broadcasting Board of Governors in the context of the current international situation ... is of the highest priority," Berman said. "This is not some backwater."
The Broadcasting Board of Governors oversees all U.S. government and government-sponsored international broadcast programming in 61 languages, including Voice of America, Radio and TV Marti and two services directed to the Middle East, Radio Sawa, or "Together" in Arabic, and the satellite television network Al Hurra, or "the Free One."
Tomlinson, who was traveling out of the country, refuted the allegations in a statement released late Tuesday.
"I am very proud of what I have accomplished for U.S. international broadcasting," said the former editor of Reader's Digest and friend of Bush political strategist Karl Rove.
"I believe it will become clear this I.G. investigation was inspired by partisan divisions inside the BBG."
A White House spokeswoman said Tuesday that Bush continued to support Tomlinson, whose renomination as chairman of the broadcasting board is pending before the Senate.
Federal prosecutors have declined to investigate the case for criminal wrongdoing, according to the State Department report. But the new allegations seemed to portend more trouble for Tomlinson and the White House.
The Bush administration's campaign to build support in the Middle East and other areas of the Islamic world have already been derided as crude propaganda by some critics.
