Damn! This clown at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is even more radical than I previously thought. Not only has he appointed "ombudsmen" to oversee the "balance" PBS has, he's hired a former Bush White House lackey to set up those offices.
In March, after she had been hired by the corporation but was still at the White House as director of the Office of Global Communications, Mary Catherine Andrews helped draft the office's guiding principles, set up a Web page and prepare a news release about the appointment of the new ombudsmen, officials said.Ms. Andrews said she undertook the work at the instruction of top officials at the corporation. "I was careful not to work on this project during office hours during my last days at the White House," she said.
Mr. Tomlinson has also occasionally worked with other White House officials on public broadcasting issues. Last year he enlisted the presidential adviser Karl Rove to help kill a legislative proposal that would change the composition of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board by requiring the president to fill about half the seats with people who had experience in local radio and television. The proposal was dropped after Mr. Rove and the White House criticized it.
Well now. The reason for Rove and pals not liking that legislative proposal seems obvious: it would preclude them politicizing the Board. Seems like they've succeeded in doing just that.
I have no suggestions for what we can do about this, except get the link to the CPB ombudsmen in your bookmarks; you may have a great need for it in the future.
Posted by Linkmeister at May 2, 2005 12:01 AMHey linkmeister, I thought of you as soon as I started reading the article in the NYTs this morning. Could their strategy be: they'll make it so boring, no one will watch it -- ratings will go down -- and voila! They can eliminate it??!!
I cannot stand these guys. Where are the Democrats??
Posted by: blue girl at May 2, 2005 09:47 AMThe Dems are rightly (in my view) focused on the SocSec issue and filibusters. When we win back the White House we can replace these people posthaste. There may be a little short-term damage, but if PBS behaved like commercial networks in one regard and canceled bad shows, then the Journal Editors would be gone in a flash. It's nothing but polemics.
As a side note, I think PBS is going to cancel the "WSW with Fortune" show for similar reasons: nobody watches it. Apparently people watched the predecessor with Rukeyser as much for his puns as for his "financial advice."
Posted by: Linkmeister at May 2, 2005 12:14 PM