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To: Lane3 who wrote (145754)	11/4/2005 12:03:15 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 793782

Kenneth Tomlinson Quits Public Broadcasting Board By Paul Farhi Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, November 4, 2005; Page C01 Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, who sparked controversy by asserting that programs carried by public broadcasters have a liberal bias, resigned yesterday from the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting a day after the agency's inspector general delivered a report apparently critical of his leadership. Tomlinson, a staunch conservative who was CPB's chairman until September, brought unprecedented attention to his agency by publicly criticizing the alleged political favoritism of news programs, primarily those carried by the Public Broadcasting Service. CPB wields great influence over public radio and TV stations through its distribution of about $400 million in federal funding each year. Despite Tomlinson's high-profile campaign, it was his behind-the-scenes moves that apparently contributed to his departure. The CPB's inspector general has been investigating Tomlinson's practice of using agency money to hire consultants and lobbyists without notifying the agency's board. Tomlinson last year hired a little-known Indiana consultant to study the political leanings of guests on such programs as "Now With Bill Moyers" and "The Diane Rehm Show" on National Public Radio. He also hired lobbyists to defeat legislation that would have changed how CPB's board is structured. The inspector, Kenneth Konz, also had been looking into whether Tomlinson violated agency procedures in his recruiting of former Republican National Committee co-chairman Patricia de Stacy Harrison to be CPB's chief executive, and into possible White House influence in the hiring of two in-house ombudsmen to critique news programs on NPR and PBS. Konz delivered his preliminary findings to CPB's board Tuesday night, but the report will not be made public until midmonth. In announcing Tomlinson's departure yesterday, the CPB added a curious addendum: "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. The board expresses its disappointment in the performance of former key staff whose responsibility it was to advise the board and its members." CPB officials declined to identify the "former key staff" mentioned and a spokesman, Michael Levy, declined to answer questions, citing "a legal agreement" between the board and Tomlinson. He could not be reached for comment. In many ways, Tomlinson's resignation has more symbolic than practical import. His remaining term as a board member would have run out Jan. 31 (he could have stayed on the board through the end of next year had President Bush failed to appoint someone to replace him). 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. Tomlinson, a former editor of Reader's Digest, remains chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a federal agency unrelated to CPB that oversees the government's international broadcasting services, including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and the Arabic-language Radio Sawa. Some Democrats, as well as public broadcasting and public interest groups, recently have called for restructuring the CPB. Tomlinson's resignation "comes as welcome news," said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.), who was among several Democrats who earlier this year called for the inspector general's investigation. "There's no doubt in my mind that Mr. Tomlinson's legacy at CPB is a negative one and that he has done far more harm to the CPB than good." Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, an advocacy group, said: "It was time that Mr. Tomlinson stepped down. He has engaged in unethical, if not illegal, behavior." He predicted, however, that Tomlinson's departure "is unlikely to stop the behind-the-scenes programming pressure on PBS and perhaps NPR" because conservatives remain in charge.

To: Lane3 who wrote (145754)	11/4/2005 12:25:24 PM
From: D. Long	Respond to of 793782

Doesn't sound at all lefty to me... It sounds very lefty. The Socialist international espoused 1. militant international revolution, 2. communal organization, 3. establishment of social unions as the organizing principle of society, destroying "feudal" organizing principles of family and class (read the French Socialists on this point especially), 4. the arrogance of historicism and the inevitibility of Socialism, 5. the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, 6. the creation of personality cults around revolutionary leaders, 7. and the glorification of labor over the intellect, the intellect being bourgeois. The intellectual class were the first to find the firing squads and re-education camps. The distinction between left- and right- socialism, and Fascism was socialism, is an empty one, IMO. Derek

To: Lane3 who wrote (145754)	11/4/2005 12:26:21 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793782

the rise of the various tendencies that would come together to make fascism – militarism, corporatism, regimentation, nationalist chauvinism, plutocracy in populist guise, the call for “strong leaders” and “national greatness,” the glorification of conflict over commerce and of brute force over intellect – Well, that's a simple, clear definition, isn't it? Just remember where Mussolini and Hitler came from in their rise to power. The Socialist left. Syndicalism, communism and fascism all have the common root of collectivism: The concept that man is the property of the state. Which comes out of altruism: what is good for the group requires the sacrifice of an individual's self-interest. Hitler was not an intellectual, but his basic thinking was standing on the shoulders of Hegel, Plato and Kant. He constantly referred to Kant. The "nationalism" that the terms you listed above refer to are simply a method to power used by all totalitarian states. They are the process used to get to a collectivist state. The economic method that the left uses is control of the means of production. Fascism and communism simply use variants of the same method.