Report Criticizes Tomlinson and CPB
by TChris
Update: Mother Jones reports on proposals to protect CPB from political influence.
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Original post:
It’s old news that Kenneth Tomlinson, the former chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, violated federal law as he pursued his mission to rescue public radio and television from the “leftist” slant that he and other extremists on the right perceived. As TalkLeft reported here, CPB’s board of directors forced Tomlinson’s resignation after reviewing the confidential findings prepared by CPB’s inspector general. Now the “scathing” report has been finalized and it’s no longer confidential. (The IG's lengthy report, in pdf format, is here.)
[T]he report said that Mr. Tomlinson violated federal law by being heavily involved in getting more than $4 million in money for a program featuring the conservative editorial writers of The Wall Street Journal. The board is prohibited from getting involved in programming decisions, but the investigators found that Mr. Tomlinson had pushed hard for the program, "The Journal Editorial Report," even as some staff officials at the corporation raised concerns over its cost.
Although the Public Broadcasting Act “was written to insulate programming decisions from politics,” the IG “found evidence that ‘political tests’ were a major criteria used by Mr. Tomlinson in recruiting the corporation's new president, Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee and former senior State Department official."
According to the report, she was given the job after being promoted for it by an unidentified official at the White House. Investigators found e-mail messages between Mr. Tomlinson and the White House that, "while 'cryptic' in nature, give 'the appearance that the former chairman was strongly motivated by political considerations in filling the president/C.E.O. position.'" The corporation's presidency, its senior staff job, has historically been reserved for a nonpartisan expert in public broadcasting.
One candidate for a position at CPB was asked about her campaign contributions, while another official was given a job at the request of the White House. And Tomlinson hired “two Republican consultants to lobby against public broadcasting legislation last year.” This kind of cronyism is inconsistent with the apolitical climate that Congress envisioned when it created the CPB.
As TalkLeft noted here, Tomlinson is also under investigation for the misuse of federal funds and "the use of phantom or unqualified employees" during his reign at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a position he still occupies.
It isn’t clear that Tomlinson’s successor, Cheryl Halpern, described in the linked article as “a Republican fund-raiser,” is any great improvement.
Ms. Halpern headed the board's audit committee under Mr. Tomlinson, and she raised concerns among executives at National Public Radio for criticizing its coverage of the Middle East. She was also Mr. Tomlinson's choice to succeed her, in part, he has said, because of her continued commitment to end any programming bias.
To the right wing, any programming that doesn’t parrot the White House talking lying points is evidence of “liberal bias.” The fact that public broadcasting gives a voice to all sides of an issue is anathema to those on the right who think that the only voices entitled to be heard are their own.
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