16 senators call for ouster of public broadcasting chief
rawstory.com
..."The Senators wrote, “We strongly disagree with your Administration’s decision to appoint an individual to head a not-for-profit corporation such as public broadcasting who is actively undermining, under-funding, and ultimately undoing its mission.
Mr. Tomlinson has made a series of decisions that call into question his commitment to public television:
- He hid polls from the public that show that public support for PBS is around 80 percent of Americans believe that public television is “fair and balanced;”
- He has spent unnecessary funds to investigate individual news programs for bias; - He adjusted programming to cut news programs because of perceived bias; - He didn’t speak out publicly against cuts to massive cuts to public television by the House Appropriations Committee; - He hired expensive lobbyists to strategize about how to encourage senators to oppose a bill that would have allowed individual public television stations to have more representations on the board of the CPB; and - He has recommended Patricia Harrison, a former Republican Party co-chair, to be the new CPB President.
The Republican leadership in the House has cut nearly $200 million for CPB’s budget – and has slashed the “Ready to Learn” shows such as Reading Rainbow and Sesame Street by $23 million in the House Appropriations Committee.
“We urge you to immediately replace Mr. Tomlinson with an executive who takes his or her responsibility to the public television system seriously, not one who so seriously undermines the credibility and mission of public television,” their letter concluded.
Senators who signed the letter are: Schumer, Lautenberg, Feinstein, Leahy, Stabenow, Nelson (FL), Durbin, Kennedy, Harkin, Corzine, Cantwell, Biden, Boxer, Mikulski, Wyden, and Lieberman." |
