The Nation blogger Ari Berman writes that “changes sought by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s (CPB) conservative chairman, Ken Tomlinson, and his majority Republican board include redirecting money away from news and toward music programming, the appointment of two ombudsman with conservative ties and an examination of NPR’s Middle East coverage for evidence of bias.” More below, with poll:
Why the need for such a shake-up? Maybe because CPB board member Cheryl Halpern is a former chairwoman of the Republican Jewish Coalition whose family has business interests in Israel. Another board member, Gay Hart Gaines–who once ran Newt Gingrich’s political action committee and together with Halpern raised $800,000 for the Republican Party since 1995–“talked about the need to change programming in light of a conversation she had with a taxi driver about his listening habits,” the New York Times reported yesterday.
Apparently, her driver wasn’t aware of the CPB’s own internal polling, which found an 80 percent favorability rating for PBS and public radio. A similar number dubbed NPR “fair and balanced,” with listener demographics split equally between conservatives, liberals and moderates. …
