Pushing PBS to the right
Republicans have launched a heavy-handed campaign to correct public broadcasting's "liberal slant." There's just one problem: Most Americans don't think it has one.
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By Eric Boehlert
May 10, 2005 | In the early 1970s a civil war erupted inside the fledgling world of public television. Upset with what they saw as its liberal news and public affairs programming, and particularly its tough coverage of the Vietnam War and the Watergate hearings, Nixon administration officials moved to rein in public television by stacking the board at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which acts as a governing body for the hundreds of local stations nationwide. The board then sought to control national programming decisions and curtail news programming.
MUCH more below...
"There were tremendous fights, with the Nixon Administration
trying to prevent public television from doing any public affairs programming at all," former PBS president Lawrence Grossman once recalled to the New York Times. But Nixon's end run ultimately failed. In 1979, Newsweek quoted a PBS executive who insisted, "The war between CPB and PBS is over."
Today it's back on.
Amid a flurry of high-profile personnel changes, suppressed polling data, revised journalism guidelines, new oversight ground rules and deep suspicion, the CPB board -- once again under the control of White House-friendly Republicans -- and PBS are battling each other over content and allegations of PBS's liberal bias. The brawl is shaping up to make the Nixon-era dust-up seem tame by comparison: This weekend one PBS station manager dubbed CPB's crusade for "balance" a "witch hunt."
"It's designed to get people's attention and warn them not to do programming that will be questioned," says David Fanning, executive producer of "Frontline," PBS's award-winning investigative series. "We ask hard questions to people in power. That's anathema to some people in Washington these days."
Much more here...
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/05/10/cpb_bias_campaign/index.html
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We need to fight this! They are trying to "fix" PBS and NPR! I think all of you animal owners know what "fixing" is. If they can not "fix" PBS and NPR they want to kill them!
We need to call, write and email our elected officials, the media and our local PBS stations. Also contact PBS and NPR themselves!
Use this link if you need for contact info and an EASY way to email your elected officials and the media.
http://www.congress.org
This is a worthy fight that we MUST take on! PBS and NPR are not "fair and balanced", they are FAIR and CORRECT! They even want to kill off or "change" shows like FRONTLINE!
Come on people let us not give in.. we have been make small gains which seems to be growing when we fight! Let our voices be heard!!!
Contact elected officials and the media
http://www.congress.org
PBS http://www.pbs.org/
NPR http://www.npr.org/
PLEASE pass this on!
Thank you,
Kevin