Public Broadcasting Monitor Worked for Conservatives

From The New York Times:

A researcher retained secretly by the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, to monitor the "Now" program with Bill Moyers for political objectivity last year, worked for 20 years at a journalism center founded by the American Conservation Union, and a conservative columnist, an official at the journalism center said on Monday.

The decision by the chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, retain the researcher, Fred Mann, without the knowledge of the corporation's board, to report on the political leanings of the guests of "Now" is one of several issues under investigation by the corporation's inspector general.

Talk about a conflict of interest here. The chairman for C.P.B secretly places a researcher on the payroll to investigate the political views of guests on a PBS show. The researcher's own political leanings are highly conservative, considering his own work at both a conservative journalism center and a conservative columnist. Do you really expect this researcher's conclusions to be "fair and balanced?"

Guess what? The Republican Party wants to control every media outlet it can, so it can push its own ideology and propaganda, while at the same time stifle any criticism. The Republicans have always believed that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and its PBS programming, is a propaganda tool controlled by the liberal elites and the Democratic Party. The Republicans have wanted to shut down C.P.B and PBS, or control it for their own agenda. Never mind that the Republicans have their own conservative media outlets--such as Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times. We can't have the liberal elites take control of Sesame Street. Or have Buster Bunny run around in Vermont learning how to make maple syrup from a lesbian family. We can't have Bill Moyers of "Now" talk with Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska of criticisms on the White House policy in Iraq, or investigate financial waste at the Pentagon.

Your tax dollars hard at work to promote the Republican propaganda while censoring all criticism to that propaganda.