Our boy Tomlinson of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Broadcast Board of Governors seems to think his mouth is to be used as an insertion point for his foot:
"I have worked in four administrations, and this is the first time there has been no attempt from the White House, the National Security Council, or the State Department to interfere with the programming broadcast by our professional journalists."Tomlinson's assertion is directly contradicted by rebuttals in the forthcoming issue of Foreign Affairs by Ungar and an anonymous VoA staffer. The staffer notes that over the past several years, some VoA television scripts have been "subject to an unusual level of personal scrutiny and revision by VOA Director Jackson, and before him by former director Robert Reilly, to ensure that they reflected administration views and did not accentuate negatives, but positives in the 'war on terrorism.'"
Here's an upcoming CJR article about VOA, and here's a preview of the Foreign Affairs article.
And here's a story about a leading candidate for the chairman's job at CPB: She just happens to be a former co-chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Nope, there's no attempt to politicize the public airwaves. Move along now.
Update: If politicizing those airwaves is getting you unfavorable ink, you could always stop the funding. I don't think it will happen, but the House wants to try.
Posted by Linkmeister at June 10, 2005 12:01 AM