"I frankly feel at PBS headquarters there is a tone deafness to issues of tone and balance," Kenneth Tomlinson, the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, said in May. Since he was appointed to his position by
President Bush, he has set about to change the "tone" and rectify the "balance." For example, he helped secure $4 million to fund Wall Street Journal Report, a round-table discussion featuring the newspaper's right-wing editorial board; no liberals or Democrats need apply. Next he collaborated with Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, to kill a legislative proposal that would have required appointments with local broadcasting experience to the CPB board.  Last year, to justify his campaign for balance, Tomlinson commissioned a secret study to prove that certain programs aired on PBS radio and television are contaminated with liberal bias.

To carry out this delicate task, Tomlinson selected Fred Mann, a conservative activist with no credentials as an expert on journalism, broadcasting or media issues, who was obscure even within right-wing circles. Mann was paid $14,700 in taxpayer money to monitor a sampling of PBS shows and file a report to Tomlinson on the political partisanship of their content. Tomlinson seems to have planned for Mann's report to become a seminal conservative document. Republicans would wave it during House appropriations committee hearings as they argued for defunding PBS and realigning its programming. Right-wing talk jocks would blare talking points based on Mann's disturbing findings, which would at last provide definitive proof of a liberal media tilt.

Matt Labash, a former senior writer for The Weekly Standard who now writes for National Review, in a 2003 interview on the website journalismjobs.com. Labash explained: "The conservative media likes to rap the liberal media on the knuckles for not being objective. We've created this cottage industry in which it pays to be un-objective.... It's a great way to have your cake and eat it too. Criticize other people for not being objective. Be as subjective as you want. It's a great little racket."

Tomlinson commissioned a secret study to prove that certain programs aired on PBS radio and television are contaminated with liberal bias.

The problem with PBS is that people are going to be forced to pay for something they don't agree with no matter what.

Aren't YOU the one complaining about strawmen? 

Any thoughts about about Tomlinson and the good old liberal Chuck Hagel?

I wasn't arguing you expat, I was talking to you. Calm down sparky.

BushCo is turning PBS from monstrously liberally biased to slightly Conservatively biased. Such is the ills of government controlled broadcasting. Put it on the market, it is more than capable of competing.

the CPB financing is some $1-$2 per person

Centrest in an abstract political sense or centrist within the lexicon of American politics? Or something else?

So far all that has happened is that a report has been filed and they called someone who liked Ronald Reagan a Liberal. Many people like Ronald Reagan, across the board.

As for the study we will have to wait and see now won't we? Wouldn't want to pre-judge, that would be a very close minded, conservative thing to do!

I don't give pan-handlers $1 because I don't agree with how many of them use it.  I don't want to give CPB $1 because I disagree with how they use it.

I also don't think that the federal government should support the arts.  It has no charter to do such a thing.  Art does well enough in the private sector.  In fact, the worst art I ever see are on the lawns of court houses etc.  That is because no one else considers them art.  Hmm...maybe I should make a bunch of bullsh|t and then sell it to the government.....

Don't get me wrong, I do agree that there are MUCH bigger fish to fry that CPB.  (That's why I'm not starting topics about it  )

heh..  what is the definition of "is", anyway?  Am I here?  Am I a figment of my imgination?  What bout your imagination?  Am I an alien and I don't know it? 

Just answer the question.
Chuck Hagel is not soneone who "liked Ronald Regan" ...  he gets a 100% rating from the Christian Coalition.  He's not a Liberal, either (even though he expressed dissent for the Iraq War - thats why he got called a Liberal)

No, we don't really have to wait and see.  First,  why commission it in secret,  then hide it?  Why hire someone outside of the appropriate field of expertise, with no relevant experience?  Why hire a poiltical "operative" with an obvious bias? 

These are not "wait and see" questions.  These have obvious answers given the context.  Your attempt at obfuscating the issue is appreciated, though.  Keep it up - mybe you will actually start to think that you really are an alien!

OK ...  now it depends on what the defintion of "question" is.  Slick. 

What is a moderate?  I am not asking "What is a moderate in the grand scheme of things?"  nor am I asking "What is a moderate in th 15th century Bantu Empire?" 

The context was American politics,  as defined by what is "left" and what is "right" ..  I asked "what is in the middle?"

Centrest in an abstract political sense or centrist within the lexicon of American politics? Or something else?

So far all that has happened is that a report has been filed and they called someone who liked Ronald Reagan a Liberal. Many people like Ronald Reagan, across the board.

As for the study we will have to wait and see now won't we? Wouldn't want to pre-judge, that would be a very close minded, conservative thing to do!

A middle sized government, certainly much bigger than I would like, and much smaller than the Europeans have or the left would like. POSSIBLY a national healthcare service, a strong national defense, probablly civil unions for Gays but not marriages, strong support for the War on Terror but some apprehension about the war in Iraq, support for tax cuts and welfare reform, maybe support for social security reform, maybe not.

Those are generally the stances I would imagine an American moderate taking. Not that I see anything inherently virtuous about being a "Moderate"