Boston Globe Op-Ed: The assault on NPR & related Media Matters action

[paineinthearse]

The chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kenneth Tomlinson, is ushering in an era when National Public Radio member stations may, reportedly, soon be encouraged by the corporation to shift their programming from news to music. That was the Kremlin's way on bad days in Soviet-era Moscow, warns Tom Ashbrook.

Note: posted in full with Tom's permission.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/05/26/the_assault_on_npr/

The assault on NPR
By Tom Ashbrook | May 26, 2005

WHEN GOVERNMENT media masters ask broadcasters to replace news with music, watch out. That was the Kremlin's way on bad days in Soviet-era Moscow. Days when someone important had died. Days when things had gone badly wrong. Now, the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kenneth Tomlinson, is ushering in an era when National Public Radio member stations may, reportedly, soon be encouraged by the corporation to shift their programming from news to music. News has made NPR America's great radio success story of the last 20 years. While commercial radio has cut news, gone Top 40, and stumbled, NPR's listenership has soared. It now tops 23 million a week, its largest audience in history.

Tomlinson says he is concerned with a perception of liberal bias in public broadcasting. He has singled out Bill Moyers at PBS for criticism, even as Moyers has departed and PBS has -- at the direction of the corporation -- brought on the conservative Tucker Carlson and editors of The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial page. Last month, despite objections from NPR, which already had an active ombudsman, the corporation appointed its own ombudsmen -- one right leaning and one left -- to monitor public broadcasting content for political slant. This is almost certain to raise partisan tensions and tempt more intervention.

It is time to step off this path. America's public broadcasting system was born with bipartisan support under a Democratic president, Lyndon Baines Johnson. It has grown under administrations of both parties. Now the Corporation for Public Broadcasting board is dominated by appointees of a Republican, George W. Bush. But NPR's listeners self-identify themselves across the American political spectrum -- one-third conservative, one-third liberal, and one-third independent. Repeated surveys ordered up by Tomlinson himself have found that large majorities of listeners do not hear liberal bias at NPR. For its latest survey the corporation commissioned two polling firms, one Republican and one Democrat. They found that fewer than 15 percent of Americans say that NPR coverage of the war or the Bush administration is slanted. And 80 percent of Americans say they have an overall favorable impression of NPR. Those are pretty darned good numbers. And, yet, the swords are drawn in Washington. How do we move beyond this?

First, to NPR: Don't retreat. Do reach out. Don't shrink back. Be more bold. Don't rest on those poll numbers. Know that this whole country, with all the people in it, is your ideal audience. The whole population -- red states, blue states, everybody. So speak to all. Listen to all. Test every assertion and premise. And be journalistically critical of all. Not in a desperate balancing act between parties and competing agendas. The goal is not to balance two spins. But listen and dig for honesty, for the understanding and insight the whole country needs. Does that sound difficult in this divided time? Yes, but that's the job.

Second, to Kenneth Tomlinson: Don't build walls. Don't drive wedges. Don't divide. Think big and long-term. The one barrier the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has historically tended is a firewall between public broadcasting's news-gathering mission and meddling politics. That is important for the continuing health of any news organization and especially a public one. NPR may get only 1 percent of its funding from the corporation these days, but member stations rely on it for from 5 to 15 percent of their budgets. Don't use that financial clout to drain the news or try to cow those who would ask tough questions. Tough questions are assets, not threats. Let's open up the big national conversation, not run it through a partisan splitter. Let's celebrate tough reporting, the big tent, and the big mission, not small politics.

Two ombudsmen? One for liberals and one for conservatives? Parked outside of NPR and PBS and throwing down conflicting accusations? This is a bad idea. It sounds more like two battling censors-in-waiting. Let's not recreate ''Crossfire" on NPR's doorstep or, worse, in its newsroom. Let's pull together for great, independent broadcasting and vigorous journalism.

More music instead of news? Please. America is awash in music. Clear-headed, inquiring, fair-minded news is the more rare thing. And it is what's needed. Years ago, on the other side of a Cold War wall, Soviet citizens got music instead of news when the news was too difficult. Today, there are those who would build a high partisan wall between Americans facing a difficult world. But news and understanding will ultimately unite, not divide. So tear down that wall, Mr. Tomlinson. Don't build it higher. Americans know this can be done. And they're watching. And listening.

Tom Ashbrook is host of WBUR's ''On Point," distributed nationally by NPR.

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HANDS OFF PUBLIC BROADCASTING

http://mediamatters.org/handsoff/

5/24/05

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), ranking Democrat on the House Commerce Committee, and Rep. David Obey (D-WI), ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, have written a letter to the Inspector General of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) urging him to investigate recent efforts apparently aimed at imposing a conservative political agenda on public broadcasting. Help make sure that the Inspector General conducts a thorough investigation.

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http://mediamatters.org/handsoff/pr_20050523.html

5/24/05
Media Matters Launches "Hands Off Public Broadcasting" Campaign

Since the signing of the Public Broadcasting Act more than 35 years ago, Americans have relied on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), National Public Radio (NPR), and other public broadcasting outlets to provide quality programs and independent journalism free from political or commercial pressure. According to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the public believes that PBS programming is free from political tilt: A survey reveals that "the majority of the U.S. adult population does not believe that the news and information programming on public broadcasting is biased." Unfortunately, that is not sufficient for some -- like CPB chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, who wants public broadcasting to reflect his conservative political beliefs.

Tomlinson's recent actions endanger the independence of PBS and NPR and threaten the quality of its programming:

He has hired two ombudsmen, Ken Bode and William Schulz, both of whom have ties to conservative institutions and politicians.

He has hired Mary Catherine Andrews, the former director of the White House Office of Global Communications who wrote the guidelines for the ombudsman position while still at the White House, though Tomlinson now says this isn't true.

Unbeknownst to other members of the CPB board, he spent $10,000 in taxpayer money, to investigate alleged bias on the PBS program NOW, formerly hosted by Bill Moyers. Tomlinson has suggested the results confirm his belief that NOW's guest list is slanted to the left -- but he hasn't explicitly said so, and hasn't publicly released the taxpayer-funded study.

He helped raise $5 million to produce The Journal Editorial Report, a PBS program featuring the right-wing editorial board of The Wall Street Journal.

He named W. Kenneth Ferree as president and chief executive officer of CPB. Ferree is a former official at the Federal Communications Commission who played "a significant role" in the failed effort to loosen rules to allow a few large companies to further consolidate the mass media by acquiring multiple outlets in the same local market and lifting caps on how many TV stations one company can own nationwide. Ferree is an especially odd choice to run CPB, given that he says he isn't "much of a TV consumer," doesn't "watch a lot of broadcast news," prefers People magazine to The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, and doesn't listen to NPR because he commutes to work on his motorcycle. Farree explained why he won't install a radio: "y bikes are real cruisers. They're stripped down deliberately to look cool, and I don't want all that electronic gear."

Fortunately, some of our elected officials have taken action. Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), ranking Democrat on the House Commerce Committee, and Rep. David Obey (D-WI), ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, have written a letter to the Inspector General of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting demanding an investigation of recent actions by the CPB that may violate the Public Broadcasting Act. Dingell and Obey write: "Recent news reports suggesting that the CPB is increasingly making personnel and funding decisions on the basis of political ideology are extremely troubling."

We at Media Matters for America agree with Dingell and Obey. That is why we have begun our "Hands Off Public Broadcasting" campaign to monitor, analyze and fight back against efforts to turn PBS, NPR, and other public broadcasting outlets into yet another outlet for conservative misinformation.

We are asking for you to take action. Please contact your representatives and ask them to support Dingell and Obey's call for an investigation into Tomlinson's political pressure on PBS and NPR. Let your representatives know that you support quality programming and independent journalism at PBS.

We will be constantly monitoring this situation and calling for action when needed. Media Matters will keep you informed about the background of the key players, key issues, and key facts in this battle. We will also let you know about useful resources and about others doing work to help keep public broadcasting free of right-wing political interference. Please visit www.HandsOffPublicBroadcasting.org regularly for the latest information.

Take Action: Support the call to investigate political influence in public broadcasting - http://mediamatters.org/handsoff/emailrep.html