New head of CPB calling for "fairness and balance" in PBS, NPR

[smoogatz]

Heard him on All Things Considered last night, actually saying that--apparently a number of Republican lawmakers have complained about PBS/NPR's "blatant liberal bias." Never mind that PBS/NPR consumers are consistently the best informed of all Americans; forget about quaint notions like objectivity and reporting the facts and the media's role as government watchdog--what's important is "fairness and balance." What they want, clearly, is to turn NPR/PBS into a Bushco propaganda organ just like Faux News; or at least to neuter them and render those informed viewers/listeners just as ignorant and confused as everyone else.

[loveable liberal]

1. I find proponents of the liberal bias are usually anti-intellectualists

[CWebster]

2. Typical dynamic strategy of the Right

To adamantly accuse anything that doesn't conform 100% to the Neocon agenda as extreme or obstructionist or far Left.

[pelagius]

3. So interesting...

...because many lefties are complaining that NPR in particular has gone too conservative. There has been more of an effort to include conservative voice in recent years, I believe. And as a thinking American, I appreciate hearing them describe their own views in their own terms outside of the soundbite mentality.

And, having heard those views, I sneer at them and reject them totally, of course, which is my right. :-)

[AP]

8. If PBS and NPR are so liberal, why are there NO shows representing labor's

views?

They have Market Watch, the Motley Fool, and NPR has been doing a series glorifying "decisionmakers" some of whom were CEOs and none of whom were employees. Capital has no problem having their voice heard. (And, incidentally, there's a former NPR reporter who now writes favorable about GM foods -- he's on NPR all the time, being interviewed as an expert, but I've never heard someone opposed to GM foods get the level of access this guy has to NPR.)

You never hear the views of labor in public broadcasting unless it's the rare local program.

Also, on shows like Terry Gross's, you often year from the same writers, artists, and musicisions you see on MTV or Letterman who have no problem getting access to major media to sell their books, TV shows and albums which are produced by one of the seven major entertainment conglomerates.

You'd think that, when it's the viewers supporting the programming, you might get to hear from a different set of people than the ones the mega-corps have no problem foisting on the public in the for-profit media.

[CWebster]

9. I recently heard one of the NPR hosts positively gushing

when it was revealed that Karl Rove listened to NPR.

[AP]

10. The love they gave Carla Fiorina was bizarre. She was fired, and they...

...treated her like a hero. The message is that even incompetent CEOs should be treated like hero-celebrities.

[WalrusSlayer]

4. Sigh...

If you ask me, NPR is already too "fair and balanced". Either I'm getting radical in my old age, or NPR is putting on the kid gloves way more often than they used to.

Oh well, nice handbasket anyway...

[KurtNYC]

5. Brainwashing doesn't work unless it goes 360

They can't tolerate one major source that isn't parrotting the party line.

[Warpy]

6. Great, and just where have we heard that before?

They're going to take a centrist network and shift the balance toward the neocons?

Forget it. I won't be watching. I won't be contributing.

[Dr Fate]

7. We need even MORE hours dedictated to Jane Fonda & "culture of life."

I persoanlly dont get enough.

[Jacobin]

11. well we all know what those code words mean, now don't we?

Last nickel I'll ever send to those putz's