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Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board

By TChris, Section Media
Posted on Fri Nov 04, 2005 at 08:54:25 AM EST
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by TChris

Kenneth Tomlinson, the former head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is among the right wingers who can’t stomach the possibility that liberal (or even moderate) ideas might be publicly voiced. The Inspector General of the CPB investigated Tomlinson’s use of corporate funds to promote conservative programming on public television, and its report is in the hands of CPB's board.

[The investigation] included Mr. Tomlinson's decision to hire a researcher to monitor the political leanings of guests on the public policy program "Now" with Bill Moyers; his use of a White House official to set up an ombudsman's office to scrutinize programs for political balance; and secret payments approved by Mr. Tomlinson to two Republican lobbyists.

The results of the IG’s report are confidential, but they persuaded the other members of CPB’s board, on which Tomlinson continued to sit, to force his resignation.

The move - and a statement by the corporation - strongly suggested that the inspector general discovered significant problems under Mr. Tomlinson .... "The board expresses its disappointment in the performance of former key staff whose responsibility it was to advise the board and its members," the board's statement said, without identifying the former officials. "Nonetheless, both the board and Mr. Tomlinson believe it is in the best interests of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that he no longer remain on the board."

Tomlinson was appointed by President Clinton, but "has long been close with senior Republican officials, including Karl Rove." The IG’s report will be made public later this month.

< D.C. Circuit: Wen Ho Lee Reporters Must Testify | 'Principal Deputy' In Libby Indictment is Eric Edelman >

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    Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board | 22 comments (22 topical)
    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#17)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:11 PM EST
    Wow, really? So the cost of product isn't important -- that's interesting. They can just pass on their costs to the customer endlessly? So that won't affect profits at all, right?
    Evidently PPJ "I gots an ejookayshun and u dont!" never learned about demand schedules.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#18)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:14 PM EST
    PIL - By golly I didn't think you understood. And you don't. No, they can't do it forever. At some point the price increases will bring in competition from a lower cost country, and the corporation will be out of business. And the worker bees will be out of work. As Robert Heinlein said: TANSTAAFL There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. REPEAT AFTER ME: TAXES ARE A COST COMPONENT. THEY WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE PRICE OF THE PRODUCT. BTW - The average tax component in a gallon of gas is around .50 cents. The national average is now around $2.25. The government(s) could drop gas prices to around $1.75 just by canceling the taxes. PIL, don't hold your breath. scar's song ... "We dom't need no education..."

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:16 PM EST
    Tomlinson gone? Good riddance to bad rubbish.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:19 PM EST
    Posted by Jim: "At some point the price increases will bring in competition from a lower cost country," It isn't a lower-cost country that is the issue. It's PAYING A FAIR SHARE OF THE COSTS OF PRODUCT, which includes paying for, for instance, a US military to protect US business interests. I LOVE seeing you defend the non-payment of corporate taxes, Jimmie. "And the worker bees will be out of work." The worker bees? HILARIOUS. What a little Maoist you are. "There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch." Then why do you support the non-payment of US corporate taxes? "REPEAT AFTER ME: TAXES ARE A COST COMPONENT. THEY WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE PRICE OF THE PRODUCT." Obviously you don't know how to read. CEO salaries are a cost component, and they will be included. So why not corporate taxes as well? The term is "Real Cost of Product." Crashing the company into a brick wall after taking out your stock values and multiplying executive compensation by millions -- priceless. What do the worker bees do then, Mr. Lay?

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#21)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:19 PM EST
    Al, I have lived in LA and worked soley in the TV/Movie biz for the past 15+ years. I, and my kids, love many PBS shows. imo, if tax-supported PBS went away tomorrow and if their market is actually viable, for-profit TV would fill the void. Also, if you are not aware, there are many criticisms of PBS - that its shows may actually be doing more harm than good, and that it may not be the gem that many consider it to be. I'm sure you can google such criticisms. But to voice support for tax-payer financed PBS because 1) It's a good thing, and 2) No one else would do it, are two points that are very, very open to debate.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#22)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:31 PM EST
    Posted by sarcastic: "Al, I have lived in LA and worked soley in the TV/Movie biz for the past 15+ years." So we have you to blame for what? "imo, if tax-supported PBS went away tomorrow and if their market is actually viable, for-profit TV would fill the void." Gee, won't the product placements and Join the Army ads be swell in the middle of Sesame Street. IF the market is actually 'viable.' Quite clearly the market EXISTS, and the general opinion, including your own, is that the product is more than satisfactory to the market. "Viable"? Is JPL viable? Is the National Archives viable? Is the B-1 bomber program viable? The entire PBS budget would fit into one of those B-1s. With the Pentagon spinning a trillion dollars a year into barbed wire and bombs, the idea that PBS has to be 'viable' is HILARIOUS. On removing it, it will turn out that the market isn't viable. And then the children can't have their cake or eat it too. Maybe they can go back to eating lead paint, eh, sarcastic? Or watching some more Hollywood filth and violence.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#14)
    by Lww on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:37 PM EST
    Hey Paul life is about winners and losers, get used to it. I'm a right-winger and I'm against the war, save it. Where's the billion$ that Sesame Street and it's 'co-seducers of children product-lines' generated? That stuff was all over my house a few years ago. I guess I DID donate to PBS?

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#15)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:37 PM EST
    PIL - Corporations do not pay taxes. Repeat after me. Government taxes are considered a cost, and are factored into every decision made regarding prices and product strategy. Customers pay taxes. Get an education, PIL.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:43 PM EST
    Posted by LWW: " life is about winners and losers, get used to it." The 'winners' and 'losers' dialectic you wingers prefer, as you admit, is in direct contradiction to Christianity, in case you didn't know. Jesus was at considerable pains to point out that the rich are not getting in, while the poor 'losers' you scorn as such, by virtue of their lowliness are actually available to that Good News. It doesn't matter to me if you care about Christianity, but you should at least notice that the people who posture that they are Christians among you are LIARS. Posted by Jim: "Corporations do not pay taxes." As I noted; especially not under Bush. Since they don't pay taxes, as you claim, then why should it matter to them if there ARE taxes? So they won't mind us doubling their tax rate to pay off the interest on the Bush Debt, right? "Repeat after me. Government taxes are considered a cost, and are factored into every decision made regarding prices and product strategy." Wow, really? So the cost of product isn't important -- that's interesting. They can just pass on their costs to the customer endlessly? So that won't affect profits at all, right? Why are Executive salaries going through the ceiling? Because they aren't paying their fair share of the taxes, or subsidizing the health care costs of their employees. That burden is shifted to FALSE PROFITS, which are then lavished on the CEO by the CEO. What a deal! What an unamerican deal. Greed is poison that the poisoned crave.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#1)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:45 PM EST
    It is about time they dumped him.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#2)
    by Al on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:45 PM EST
    This is excellent news. Now, if PBS brings Bill Moyers back, I will consider donating again.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#3)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:45 PM EST
    The solution to this is simple. Just quit giving PBS/NPR any taxpayer funds and they can do whatever they want to do.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#4)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:45 PM EST
    The solution to this is simple. Just quit giving PBS/NPR any taxpayer funds and they can do whatever they want to do.
    Can we apply this to the neocons, too?

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:45 PM EST
    I'm with you, Jim! Let's cut ALL federal support for corporations, broadcasting or not.
    Eighty-two of America’s largest and most profitable corporations paid no federal income tax in at least one year during the first three years of the George W. Bush administration — a period when federal corporate tax collections fell to their lowest sustained level in six decades. Loopholes and other tax subsidies cut taxes for the 275 companies by $43.4 billion in 2001, $60.8 billion in 2002 and $71.0 billion in 2003, for a total of $175.2 billion in tax breaks over the three years. From 2001 to 2003, the number of no-tax companies jumped from 33 to 46, an increase of 40 percent. General Electric topped the list of corporate tax break recipients, with $9.5 billion in tax breaks over the three years.
    Gotta love that corporatism! Get yer piece, taxbreaks during war, see ya suckers -- later, patriotism. Right, Jim? Wrong is for poor people. Corporations need government support -- for free.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:45 PM EST
    "Is there a neocon TV network out there my tax dollars are subsidizing?" Aren't your tax dollars subsidizing the Iraq Invasion? That money, in part, is going straight to POX News, the official propaganda wing of the Bush government. Charley don't surf. He stares at POX propaganda to get the LIES he needs to help spread his favorite infection.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:45 PM EST
    Six of the 10 most popular TV shows for children age 2-5 are PBS . The average age of PBS viewers is very misleading. In fact, relatively few adults aged 50-64 watch PBS. If you had 12 viewers, 2 would be under age 5, 1 6-17, 2 from 18 to 49, 2 from 50 to 64, and 5 would be 65 and up. PBS does a fantastic job of serving pre-school children and the elderly, both groups eggregiously underserved by for-profit television.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#8)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:45 PM EST
    "both groups eggregiously underserved by for-profit television." Perhaps, if there is a market, and no PBS to fill it, those groups would be served by for-profit television?

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:45 PM EST
    These wingers are all about winners and losers. Having produced 1,000+ orphans of American soldiers, they want to commercialize kid's television. Winners and losers, kid. Get used to it. No Spongebob for you. You're in the Army now -- the Bushliar Youth. Forget about mathematics -- math is for losers, unless it's for the stock market. Winners and losers, hard knocks, and better keep your bedroom door locked, in case charley drinks too much.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:46 PM EST
    Yes, there is no way that Viacom, Disney, or General Electric could ever hope to compete with the likes of PBS. Also, I'm sure that the health care industry is chomping at the bit to provide more care to the working poor, but they just can't compete with those damn free clinics!

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#10)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:46 PM EST
    Um, competition is only perepherally related to my question. Perhaps the "market" for PBS's content is so limited and since they fill it essentially completely, there is no room for others? Or perhaps the market is so limited that there would be little/no commercially viable way to fill it? In which case, is there really a "market"?

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:46 PM EST
    Posted by charley: "you should have tried to win an election instead of ranting and drooling on your keyboard, PIL." Can't come up with a good response, eh, troll? Every election since 1999's Diebolding of America has been ILLEGAL. Thirty (30) states have no paper trail, and therefore no possibility of recount. Thirty states is a majority. No recount rights, no legal elections. And we've caught them doing it. You dirty dogs.

    Re: Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board (none / 0) (#12)
    by Al on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:46 PM EST
    Sarcastic unnamed one, commercial television makes a profit from advertising revenue, not from selling TV shows. Commercial TV produces shows that people who flock to buy mass consumer goods like to watch. There's no market for commercial television shows, but for hamburgers and cars and laundry detergent and heartburn pills and tampons. The other thing to bear in mind about PBS is that it is educational. So if a kid is inspired to be inquisitive and learn about science, all of society benefits ultimately. It is in society's interest to stimulate people to be curious and learn stuff. Besides, a lot of the revenue of PBS comes directly from viewers' donations.

    Tomlinson Forced Off CPB Board | 22 comments (22 topical)