PBS Chief Rejects Liberal Bias Allegations

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - PBS Chief Rejects Liberal Bias Allegations

Posted: 5/24/2005 2:17:25 PM EDT

PBS Chief Rejects Liberal Bias Allegations
May 24, 2005 4:25 PM EDT
WASHINGTON - The president of the Public Broadcasting Service on Tuesday rejected criticism by conservatives that public TV is guilty of liberal bias, and she offered a strong defense of PBS' Bill Moyers, a target of right-wing wrath.

"PBS does not belong to any one political party," Pat Mitchell said.

Mitchell's remarks at the National Press Club follow the disclosure that Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, hired a consultant to keep track of guests' political views on a program hosted by Moyers, who was White House press secretary during the Johnson administration.

"The facts do not support the case he makes" for political bias, Mitchell said of Tomlinson. Surveys show that the overwhelming majority of the public does not perceive bias in public broadcasting, she said.

The CPB gets appropriations from Congress for public broadcasting and is supposed to shield PBS from political influence. About 15 percent of PBS' budget is federal money.

Mitchell said PBS presents political views as diverse as those of Moyers and Paul Gigot, an editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page. Tomlinson was a major advocate of the show hosted by Gigot.

Tomlinson has said he is interested in politically balanced broadcasting.

While defending PBS against what she regards as unfounded attacks that it is politically partial, Mitchell said she was not questioning Tomlinson's motives.

Shortly after becoming CPB chairman, Tomlinson sent Mitchell a letter complaining that Moyers' work "does not contain anything approaching the balance the law requires for public broadcasting."

At the press club, Mitchell said Moyers' reporting on campaign fundraising during the Clinton administration drew strong complaints from Democrats.

"Our criticism comes rather equally," Mitchell said.

Posted: 5/24/2005 2:19:01 PM EDT

[#1]

I didn't know PBS was so into comedy!

Posted: 5/24/2005 2:20:43 PM EDT

[#2]

PBS will show things, and discuss topics that NO (other) network will.

They don't have to worry about pissing off commercial sponsors.

Posted: 5/24/2005 2:20:46 PM EDT

[#3]

"PBS does not belong to any one political party," Pat Mitchell said.

Translation: We have both communists and socialists.

Posted: 5/24/2005 2:30:55 PM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
"PBS does not belong to any one political party," Pat Mitchell said.

Translation: We have both communists and socialists.

do u even watch pbs???

which party does jim lehrer belong to???

Posted: 5/24/2005 2:32:56 PM EDT

[#5]

If you listened in on the day Kerry conceded you would have no doubt. These morons were sulking, crying, complaining, lashing out at "low-IQ red-staters" at every opportunity. One of their regular commentators even said, "my heart is broken." What a bunch of fucking tools...

I was laughing so hard on the way home from work listening to them I had tears streaming down my face. I'm sure others on the highway thought I was crying about the election results. NPR is a bunch of fuckstics. Occasionally they can put on a good story, but they're starting to lose relevance.

Posted: 5/24/2005 2:37:39 PM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
"The facts do not support the case he makes" for political bias, Mitchell said of Tomlinson. Surveys show that the overwhelming majority of the public does not perceive bias in public broadcasting, she said.

That's right. They are able to fool the public-school-educated morons into ~~thinking~~ believing that they have no bias. The fact that logic and rhetoric are no longer taught is irrelevant.

Posted: 5/24/2005 2:44:46 PM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
PBS will show things, and discuss topics that NO (other) network will.

They sure do...

PBS also has a clear very strong liberal bias, with little balance.

Posted: 5/24/2005 2:49:06 PM EDT

[#8]

Personally, I watch PBS stations KCET-Los Agneles, KOCE-Orange County, KAVR-San Bernardino/Riverside, and KCLS-L.A. Unified Schoold District. As long as you keep their bias in mind, there is not a problem. There programs are more informative than most of the garbage out in the CBS, NBC, ABC etc.

Posted: 5/24/2005 2:49:07 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
Quoted:
PBS will show things, and discuss topics that NO (other) network will.

They sure do...

PBS also has a clear very strong liberal bias, with little balance.

I disagree... they do stories on politics (esp Middle East) and religion that no one else would even dream of doing.

I'm not an NPR fan for the most part. But I enjoy PBS.

Posted: 5/24/2005 2:53:08 PM EDT

[#10]

I've heard some ultra lef t wing liberals say that they hate PBS because it's too conservative and leans too far to the right.

And I've heard the opposite from right wingers.

I presume this means that it's really fairly balanced.

CJ

Posted: 5/24/2005 3:11:39 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
Quoted:
"The facts do not support the case he makes" for political bias, Mitchell said of Tomlinson. Surveys show that the overwhelming majority of the public does not perceive bias in public broadcasting, she said.
That's right. They are able to fool the public-school-educated morons into ~~thinking~~ believing that they have no bias. The fact that logic and rhetoric are no longer taught is irrelevant.

Here's Bill Moyers defending himself on attacks by the "right-wing media".

Notice how he cleverly equates himself to Christ.

"First, let me assure you that I take in stride attacks by the radical right wingers who have not given up demonizing me although I retired over six months ago. They’ve been after me for years now, and I suspect they will be stomping on my grave to make sure I don’t come back from the dead. I should point out to them that one of our boys pulled it off some two thousand years ago after the Pharisees, the Sadducees and Caesar surrogates thought they had shut him up for good. I won’t be expecting that kind of miracle, but I should put my detractors on notice, they might just compel me out of the rocking chair and back into the anchor chair"

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=95417

There are no bigger ass-clowns than this guy.

Posted: 5/24/2005 4:24:22 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
I've heard some ultra lef t wing liberals say that they hate PBS because it's too conservative and leans too far to the right.

And I've heard the opposite from right wingers.

I presume this means that it's really fairly balanced.

CJ

I'm always hearing that from the left and right as well concerning most of the news outlets. I always think it funny that these people can never figure out that the direction an article appears to lean in based on the readers/watchers perspective.

Posted: 5/24/2005 4:49:10 PM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
I've heard some ultra lef t wing liberals say that they hate PBS because it's too conservative and leans too far to the right.

And I've heard the opposite from right wingers.

I presume this means that it's really fairly balanced.

You'll hear the same complaints about every news media outlet, regardless of its political leanings.

Logical conclusion: All media outlets are "fairly balanced".

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - PBS Chief Rejects Liberal Bias Allegations

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