Looks like nobody picked this one up. From Broadcasting and Cable:
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Board of Directors said Thursday that embattled former board chairman Ken Tomlinson has resigned.
The board has been reviewing a CPB Inspector General’s report–called for by a pair of congressmen–on Tomlinson’s relationship with the board stemming from Tomlinson’s attempts to add more conservative programming.
The board said in a statement: “[F]ormer chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson has resigned from the CPB board. The board does not believe that Mr. Tomlinson acted maliciously or with any intent to harm CPB or public broadcasting, and the board recognizes that Mr. Tomlinson strongly disputes the findings in the soon-to-be-released Inspector General’s report.
Can Bill Moyers return to NOW?
And yes, Tomlinson does look as if he is thumbing his nose at everybody. Not any more.
Additionally:
CPB Inspector General Kenneth Konz gave key Hill staffers a three-hour briefing late last month on his investigation into “deficiencies in policies and procedures” at CPB.
Following a request last May by Reps. David Obey (D-Wis.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.), Konz was investigating whether Tomlinson violated the Public Broadcasting Act by commissioning an outside content analysis of the politics in Now With Bill Moyers–and other PBS shows–and by enlisting a White House staffer to help write rules for two new ombudsmen, one a former Reader’s Digest colleague of Tomlinson’s.
The response from Tomlinson’s critics in Congress was swift:
“The public interest is hurt when there are no checks and balances,”said Obey “This Administration believes that since they control all branches of government, they can abuse the public trust and get away with it and Mr. Tomlinson is part of this pattern. Mr. Tomlinson’s resignation should be used to bring people together, not divide them as he and the administration have done. Public Broadcasting is too important to be anybody’s partisan or ideological play thing.”
Now what? Who might sit in Tomlinson’s place? Not a liberal or a centrist or a no affiliation. Why? WaPo sez:
Despite his departure, the CPB remains firmly controlled by conservatives. Tomlinson’s successor as chairman, Cheryl F. Halpern, is a longtime contributor to Republicans, including President Bush and Sen. Trent Lott (Miss.). Its vice chairman, Gay Hart Gaines, another Republican contributor, was a founder and former chairman of GOPAC, a powerful GOP fundraising group.
As Chicago once sang: Only the beginning/only just the start. It’s going to take a change in 2006 to make this change more concrete and pull Halpern and Gaines off their high horses.
Besides I want to continue to see Frontline and documentaries like this.
