WASHINGTON, June 2, 2004 -- Public broadcasting has found itself in the crosshairs of a partisan firing squad. New and intensifying ideological pressures from the Bush Administration have forced the public broadcaster to add new programs and alter others, in an attempt to be "more balanced" in the view of the current leadership.

At a time when Americans are finding it more and more difficult to get past the clutter and partisanship on commercial TV and radio to find truthful sources of information about their government, this ideological pressure may gag one of the few sources of independent, substantive news and commentary that Americans can count on.

The fact that members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which provides federal funds to public radio and TV, should play politics with its program content should disturb us all, whatever our political views.

The visionaries who created public broadcasting set up the CPB as the nonprofit corporation providing federal funds to public radio and TV. CPB's primary mission has always been to serve as a "heat shield" between government and public broadcasting, protecting programming from government interference.

But instead of serving as a "heat shield," CPB now is the agent of ideological interference. And public broadcasting's news and public affairs programs in particular will be harmed if conservative members of the CPB have their way.

In a New Yorker's expose published on Monday, media writer Ken Auletta documents several disturbing trends.

The CPB recently decided to fund two programs -- one hosted by Tucker Carlson, who speaks for conservatives on CNN's "Crossfire," and one moderated by Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal. At the same time that these programming additions were being made, "NOW with Bill Moyers," which receives no CPB funds, was cut from an hour to 30 minutes. Earlier in 2004, Moyers announced that he will be leaving the program by the end of the year.

Moreover, according to Auletta's article, the Bush Administration appears to be conducting a litmus test for choosing CPB board members. The White House asked CPB board candidate Chon Noriega, a UCLA media professor and co-founder of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, whether the Corporation should intervene in programming "deemed politically biased." When Noriega replied that intervention should be used in only extraordinary circumstances, the appointment process ground to a halt. The White House has since asked Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) to put forward another candidate.

Bill Moyers told Auletta: "This is the first time in my 32 years of public broadcasting that CPB has ordered up programs for ideological instead of journalistic reasons."

There is a problem with the CPB. Whether it is a Democratic or Republican President who appoints them, CPB board members tend to be big political donors who often come with specific ideological agendas.

This seems particularly true of the current board.

President George W. Bush's most recent CPB appointees, Gay Hart Gaines and Cheryl Halpern, and their families, have given more than $800,000 to the Republican Party and candidates since 1995. Both these appointees have backgrounds that raise questions about their suitability to serve on the CPB board.

During her confirmation hearing last fall, Halpern indicated that she would welcome giving CPB members the authority to intervene in program content when they felt a program was biased. Gaines chaired Newt Gingrich's political committee GOPAC. Gingrich as House Speaker proposed cutting all federal assistance to public TV.

Board chairman Kenneth Tomlinson has given $7,700 to Republicans since 1995, and has been active in Republican politics. A friend of Karl Rove, he is quoted in The New Yorker as saying that "It is absolutely critical for people on the right to feel they have the same ownership stake in public television as people on the left have," and he objected to Moyers' including commentary in his programs.

We cannot let partisans drive an ideological stake in the heart of public broadcasting. At a time when media consolidation makes it more and more difficult for Americans to hear diverse points of view and to be exposed to substantive, challenging journalism, we must save public broadcasting from these attempts to meddle with its editorial independence.

-- Chellie Pingree is President and CEO of Common Cause, a national citizens lobby based in Washington, D.C. and with 38 state organizations across the country.

© MediaChannel.org, 2004. All rights reserved.

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