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Un-American Activities:

Karl Rove's Attempt to Gut Funding for Public Broadcasting & Silence Sesame Street

By Kim Sawatzki
& Robert E. Martin

       Responding to what might be called a perverse political pledge drive by House conservatives, lawmakers routed a Republican leadership effort on June 23rd that would have cut 25 percent of the federal share of funding for public television and National Public Radio - in essence terminating the educational nexus offered to young children through such cultural figures as Elmo & Big Bird, while depriving adults the informed and non-biased viewpoints of such award-winning programs as Frontline and Bill Moyers. 

 

Lawmakers voted 284-140 to restore the $100 million that had been cut by the House Appropriations Committee from public broadcasting's $400 million federal allocation. The decision to reject the proposed budget cut came against the backdrop of a roiling fight over the actions of Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Liberals say Tomlinson has meddled with public broadcasting's impartiality in pursuit of a conservative agenda. Tomlinson argues that he is trying to correct a long-standing liberal bias but wants to see public broadcasting thrive.

The House voted Thursday on the broadcasting money as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting board named Patricia Harrison, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, as its new president. Harrison was the Republican National Committee co-chair from 1997-2001.
The House vote, which was part of an appropriations bill for education, labor and other programs, was the latest skirmish in a battle of two decades over federal funding for public broadcasting.

Republicans have tried repeatedly over the past 20 years to slash or wipe out federal money for public broadcasting, which now receives only about 15 percent of its funds from the government.
Meanwhile, over in the Senate, Republicans are fighting for tax breaks and funding incentives for oil & nuclear companies that amount to billions of dollars at a time when gasoline profits are at record highs.

As with previous attempts, particularly in the mid-1980s and in 1995, the latest proposal set off a furious response from public broadcasting stations and their fans.

CONTROLLING  HEARTS  & MINDS
     

By voice vote, the House Appropriations Committee approved a measure, which was then approved by a subcommittee two weeks ago, to reduce the financing of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by 25 percent, to $300 million from $400 million and to eliminate funding completely within two years.

The measure would also have eliminated  $39 million that stations say they need to convert to digital programming, $50 million for upgrading the aging satellite technology that is the backbone of the PBS network and the $23 million "Ready to Learn" program (which provides some money for production of children's shows, including "Sesame Street", "Clifford the Big Red Dog" and "Between the Lions", with funds supervised by the Education Department). (New York Times, Washington, June 16)

Local public broadcasting officials have pointed out that the House vote was an unexpected victory, but noted that several other public broadcasting programs - including more than $23 million for 'Ready to Learn' shows - are still at risk.

John Lawson, the president of the Association of Public Television Stations, a Washington-based group that lobbies for public broadcasters, called the subcommittee's action "at least malicious wounding, if not outright attempted murder, of public broadcasting in America." He added, "This action could deprive tens of millions of American children of commercial-free educational programming."

The public broadcasting cuts go beyond what was even requested by the White House which recommended that the $23.4 million "Ready to Learn" budget remain intact. The loss would have been greatest to low-income children and their families, and those in rural areas who either cannot afford, or do not have access to commercial media courtesy of cable. Republican lawmakers claim the cuts are necessary sacrifices required to restore "fiscal discipline", a ludicrous excuse from a Congress who holds the undisputed heavy weight title for irresponsible deficit spending and borrowing.

Lawson said: "The actions of the House subcommittee are nothing less than a direct attack on public television and radio. They are also an attack on some of the last, locally controlled and independent media voices in our country. This is not how a democracy is supposed to run."

"It is clear the GOP agenda is to control public broadcasting or to de-fund it," said Rep. David R. Obey of Wisconsin, senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. "House Republicans have gutted funding for public broadcasting stations across the country. Americans overwhelmingly see public broadcasting as an unbiased information source.  Perhaps that's what the GOP finds so offensive about it. Republican leaders are trying to bring every facet of the federal government under their control. Now they are trying to put their ideological stamp on public broadcasting."  

A senior FCC official, speaking anonymously because he must rule on public broadcasting issues went further, saying CPB "is engaged in a systematic effort not just to sanitize the truth, but to impose a right-wing agenda on PBS. It's almost like a right-wing coup. It appears to be orchestrated." (Washington Post, Friday, April 22, 2005; Page C01.)                                          

The evil puppeteer behind the scenes is Kenneth Tomlinson, chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, who is attempting to coerce public broadcasting into correcting what he claims is "liberal bias".  A spokeswoman for NPR, Andi Sporkin, directly blamed Tomlinson for the congressional action, saying, "We've never been sure of Mr. Tomlinson's intent but, with this news, we might be seeing his effect."      Without knowledge of his board, Tomlinson secretly hired a White House staffer to begin drafting "guiding principles" for the CPB and has contracted with an outside consultant to monitor the "anti-Bush" and "anti-Tom Delay" content on "NOW with Bill Moyers".                                             

A recent expose by the New York Times has shed light onto a disturbing effort to tilt PBS and its programming to the far right. The New York Times reported that Tomlinson, also a close friend of Bush right hand man Karl Rove, "is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias, prompting some public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence."               

In addition, Mr. Tomlinson has told CPB and PBS officials that "they should make sure their programming better reflected the Republican mandate." The Times indicates that Tomlinson's tenure "has been the most polarizing in a generation," with one former member of CPB stating that partisanship was "essentially nonexistent" until Tomlinson joined the board and President Bush won election in 2000.

Accusing NPR and PBS of liberal bias, Tomlinson swiftly funded and installed right-wing commentator Paul Gigot's show and is busy trying to stack the conservative deck of CPB's board with Republican Party pals, namely Patricia Harrison, the Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.                                       Kenneth

Tomlinson's liberal-phobia most likely stems from the fact that he plays musical chairs. Not only is Tomlinson chair of CPB, but he also oversees the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) where he has served as chair and member since August 2002. The BBG is the U.S.'s official propaganda machine.      

As chair of BBG, Tomlinson oversees all U.S. government sponsored broadcasting (non-military) reaching more than 100 million people each week. These include: Voice of America (which Tomlinson used to run), Radio and TV Marti (broadcast to Cuba), and Middle East services such as Radio Sawa, Alhurra (commercial free Arabic language TV) and Radio Farda (targeting Iran's Persian-language audience). Tomlinson claims that U.S. government propaganda media is "our most effective means of public diplomacy abroad and a critical component of the Global War on Terror."                                    

Amazingly enough, while funding for CPB is being sacrificed here at home, the BBG's website (http://www.bbg.gov/_bbg_news.cfm?articleID=124&mode=general) victoriously announces: "the supplemental request and last week's FY '06 budget request will enable BBG to launch and significantly expand television to non-Arabic speaking Muslim populations in Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, critical countries in the Global War on Terror.'                 

First, they kick our kids to the curb by removing quality educational and cultural programming. Then they snuff out NPR's thoughtful, provocative and insightful news programming as well as local venues of expression found on college television and public radio. And thenŠwith all the money they save, they can propagandize all the other countries they seek to control with government-sponsored programming.                 

Evidently, the government feels the money they spend educating the foreign market about the marvelous ideologies of American conservatism falls under the category of "must do".                                               

Perhaps someone should inform our government that Sesame Street has earned the distinction of being the "world's greatest educator", airing in over 120 countries. More than 20 international versions air in places like Russia, China, Kuwait and India, and there is currently a joint Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian project called "Sesame Stories", created with the goal of cultural understanding. (Wikipedia, 2005)                                            

Perhaps our government should tune into Sesame Street to get a better handle on "public diplomacy". Meanwhile, they could find the funding they so desperately need for their "must do" projects in the bottom of a pork barrel rather than in Miss Piggy's bank.

Karl Rove - The Man Behind Bush