Posted on 05/24/2005 4:47:21 PM PDT by JewishRighter
The president of the Public Broadcasting Service on Tuesday rejected criticism by conservatives that public TV is guilty of liberal bias, and she offered a strong defense of PBS' Bill Moyers, a target of right-wing wrath.
"PBS does not belong to any one political party," Pat Mitchell said.
Mitchell's remarks at the National Press Club follow the disclosure that Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, hired a consultant to keep track of guests' political views on a program hosted by Moyers, who was White House press secretary during the Johnson administration.
"The facts do not support the case he makes" for political bias, Mitchell said of Tomlinson. Surveys show that the overwhelming majority of the public does not perceive bias in public broadcasting, she said.
The CPB gets appropriations from Congress for public broadcasting and is supposed to shield PBS from political influence. About 15 percent of PBS' budget is federal money.
Mitchell said PBS presents political views as diverse as those of Moyers and Paul Gigot, an editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page. Tomlinson was a major advocate of the show hosted by Gigot.
Tomlinson has said he is interested in politically balanced broadcasting.
While defending PBS against what she regards as unfounded attacks that it is politically partial, Mitchell said she was not questioning Tomlinson's motives.
Shortly after becoming CPB chairman, Tomlinson sent Mitchell a letter complaining that Moyers' work "does not contain anything approaching the balance the law requires for public broadcasting."
At the press club, Mitchell said Moyers' reporting on campaign fundraising during the Clinton administration drew strong complaints from Democrats.
"Our criticism comes rather equally," Mitchell said.
Clintoon's fundraising was so odious, that Moyer risked losing every shred of journalistic integrity if he didn't report on it. Reporting on Clinton's scandals did not mean that PBS wasn't biased.
i dont have cable and had to watch the Republican convention on PBS. They are definately biased.
good point. but I forgot: when did moyer have a shred of journalistic integrity?
Pat Mitchell has come a long way. I remember her when she was a young, bubble-headed infobabe on local Boston TV news.
And now she's a bubble headed er, uh what exactly?
Well, that's true. There's the Dems, the Greens, the Socialist Workers Party....
Worker's party, Hezbollah, Communist Party, Geez these people really know how to party.
Now she's an old, bubble-headed leftist in charge of a network on the Public teat.
Of course not. That's ridiculous. It is shared by the Democrats, the Green Weenies, the Feminazis, the American Socialists, the International Workers of the World, the Communist Party of America, the Black Panther Party, the Tupperware Party, the Gaggle of Loons, Four Calling Birds, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.
The only group that DOESN'T have a voice is mainstream America. You know, the people who PAY for it.
Great. The Alfred E. Newman defense. "What, me biased?"
This is one statement I agree with....Dems, Socialist Democratic Party , Communist Party USA.
<Not to mention they show commercials now, so whats the <difference between PBS and every other media company?
Hmmmm. Could it be that they get most of their "news" from the offices of the DNC?
I wonder if she burst out laughing after saying that PBS is not biased?
That's the amazing thing about these people. They can really say this stuff with a straight face, because they live in a liberal bubble, free of facts and logic or opposing points of view.
Though I do recall a case of them sharing donor lists in Massechussets with the DEMOCRATS. Funny, that never happened with Republicans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.