Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The Republican war on PBS.


It's not like these people even care if they break the law anymore:

The former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting broke federal law by interfering with PBS programming and appearing to use political tests in hiring the corporation's new president, internal investigators said Tuesday.

Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, a Republican, also sought to withhold funding from PBS unless the taxpayer-supported network brought in more conservative voices to balance its programming, said the report by CPB inspector general Kenneth A. Konz...

There was evidence, the report said, to suggest that "political tests" or qualifications were used as a major factor in the hiring of new CPB President Patricia S. Harrison, in violation of federal rules. Harrison, who was backed by Tomlinson, is a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

The report also faulted Tomlinson for hiring a consultant to review program content on PBS shows such as "Now With Bill Moyers." The IG said Tomlinson didn't obtain the proper authorization from the board for the consultant's $20,000 contract. The consultant kept track of whether guests on the shows were "anti or pro-Bush," and "anti or pro-Tom DeLay."


Thank God for the CBC, right? Right?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

http://www.freepress.net/ is a website that is following these issues, and the CPB specificly.