Ken Tomlinson

2005-11-16

As the Bush administration continues to unravel, yesterday brought yet another story of political wrongdoing, this time in the world of public broadcasting.

Up until recently, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson had been the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private non-profit organization chartered and funded by the U.S. government responsible for promoting public broadcasting – which basically means PBS television, NPR radio, and overseas broadcasters like the Voice Of America.

Tomlinson was appointed by Bush to oversee the CPB, a job that should entail ensuring the nation’s tax dollars are spent wisely and appropriately to foster public broadcasting awareness and growth.

However, yesterday, it was revealed by investigators at the CPB that Tomlinson had repeatedly broken federal laws and CPB regulations in his attempt to route out liberal bias within the organization.

I listen to and watch a great deal of public broadcasting, which I find to be the single most reliable, accurate, and unbiased media out there today. It’s the closest thing we have in the U.S. to the BBC, which is by far the best news organization in the world. If you ever want to see how it’s done right, check out the BBC, either on TV or radio. And please, no comments that I’m not patriotic because I don’t think something American is the best. One thing I’m looking forward to is the day when we can go back to criticizing our nation, which is far from perfect or the best in the world at everything, without being labeled as anti-American.

I have just as many friends on each side of the aisle who take in public broadcasting programs, and until Ken Tomlinson surfaced, I never heard a lot of griping about the unbalanced nature of CPB programming.

But does it really come as a surprise to anyone, especially in light of all that has taken place recently, and with how unbelievably political and unbalanced this particular administration is, that Tomlinson used his position to try to affect the editorial direction of the public broadcasting agenda, and more specifically the programs themselves.

Tomlinson, of course, is claiming he’s innocent and is being raked through the mud by the inspector general charged with investigating his actions, and that any suggestion that he broke the law was “malicious and irresponsible.”

I guess I could buy a defense like this if it weren’t for the fact that we’ve all seen this movie before: “I did not sleep with that woman (Clinton)” or “I have not suggested there’s a connection between Iraq and 9/11 (Cheney).”

Politicians are just full of shit liars. But Tomlinson and his ilk are particularly troublesome to me because their main desire is ultimately to control the public mindset through the media with their “message,” which is disguised as trying to correct unbalanced liberal dominance.

If Tomlinson had his way, outlets like the Wall Street Journal (a great paper in many respects and one I read every day), and Fox News would be the standard bearers of news and information. To be clear, I don’t have a problem with either as they serve the needs of those who subscribe to their point of view, but they’re commercial entities who support their business through subscription and advertising.

Public broadcasting on the other hand is free and is owned by the people. It should never fall victim to a partisan politician on a mission to alter its agenda. By virtue of the fact that Tomlinson, an admitted conservative Republican, wanted to rid the CPB of liberal bias shows that is not an impartial observer.

Had he convened a commission equally represented by all points of view to study whether or not there was bias and published the findings first, it would be a different story. But he didn’t, and so he is someone who needed to be removed from his position.

Mike Brown. Lewis Libby. Ken Tomlinson. Who’s next?