Postcards From Bluster: Lehrer NH transcript--PBS Slimed By The Wrong Wing

[omega minimo]

The editor of the American Spectator purports that PBS is not supposed to be "the personal playhouse of the left wing in this country. It's not supposed to simply be a perk for coastal elites."

Strangely, the "coastal elite" that he was debating is the president of a PBS station in Kansas City, who seemed fixated on what he referred to as "balance." :evilgrin:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june05/cpb_6-21.html

PUBLIC BROADCASTING UNDER FIRE; June 21, 2005

Is there a liberal bias in public broadcasting?

JEFFREY BROWN:We now explore some of these issues now with Bill Reed, president of KCPT, a public television station in Kansas City, and George Neumayr, executive editor of the American Spectator Magazine.

Mr. Neumayr....Do you see a liberal bias in public broadcasting?

GEORGE NEUMAYR: I do. I see a pervasive bias. PBS looks like a liberal monopoly to me, and Bill Moyers is Exhibit A of that very strident left-wing bias. You can see it in also that recently-canceled show Postcards from Buster, which is a cartoon depicting a rabbit that goes to Vermont to stay with a lesbian couple in order to learn about politically correct values. So I think the problem of bias is quite deep, and I applaud Ken Tomlinson for making an attempt to correct it.

JEFFREY BROWN: When you refer to it as a "liberal monopoly" you mean you see it as a kind of pervasive matter?

GEORGE NEUMAYR: Well, I think it's been that case, the case for decades. You know, liberals have dominated PBS from the time it was started in 1967. I mean, it was created by Bill Moyers, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and it's really just a liberal Great Society project, and the slant and the tilt of the programming for decades has reflected that.

JEFFREY BROWN: And when you speak about a bias, do you mean a particular agenda being pushed, or more of a general attitude?

GEORGE NEUMAYR: Both. You see, with Bill Moyers, you see -- you know, he uses his show as a platform from which to attack conservatives and Republicans. He's been using it to harangue George Bush over the war, but also, yes, a tone, a liberal tone can be seen throughout the programming on PBS.

JEFFREY BROWN: Mr. Reed, do you see a liberal bias?

BILL REED: I think this is really nonsense. You know, the CPB Commission, two nationwide surveys about this bias issue and -- by separate firms, incidentally -- and they both came out with a majority of the American people saying they did not think there was liberal bias in PBS programs.

<snip>

GEORGE NEUMAYR: Mr. Tomlinson has not politicized PBS. Bill Moyers politicized PBS. The liberals have been politicizing PBS from 1967. This is a ridiculous smear against Ken Tomlinson for simply doing his job.

It is his job; it is his duty as the chairman for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to ensure philosophical balance in programming that is financed by all Americans. This programming is not simply -- it's not supposed to be the personal playhouse of the left wing in this country. It's not supposed to simply be a perk for coastal elites.

And Mr. Tomlinson is reflecting the views and values of the majority who voted George Bush into office, and I think it's entirely reasonable for him to correct long-standing liberal prejudices and biases that have gone unchecked and unchallenged for way too long.

JEFFREY BROWN: Mr. Reed, doesn't Mr. Tomlinson have the right in his role to speak out, if he sees this?

BILL REED: Sure, but here he's speaking out after all the polls done by his own organization show overwhelmingly that the American public does not think there's bias in public television programming. And I have to ask, you know, during all those years that William F. Buckley was on the air, and matter of fact, Pat Buchanan is on my air every week, and so is Tony Blakely from the Washington Times every week stating their views, does that make us now suddenly a conservative-oriented public broadcasting? This is absurd to single out one program --

GEORGE NEUMAYR: That's tokenism.

BILL REED: -- this kind of influence -

GEORGE NEUMAYR: That's tokenism, and you'd be lucky to have caught Bill Buckley at midnight on most stations across this country. Just to have --

BILL REED: That is not true.

GEORGE NEUMAYR: To have one conservative on a liberally-dominated network is not balanced.

BILL REED: The only thing that you can talk about liberally dominated is Bill Moyers. I mean --

GEORGE NEUMAYR: I gave you an example of Postcards from Buster, which shows how deep the bias is at PBS.

BILL REED: Postcards from Buster, there's one issue was with the lesbian parents in one program out of all the programs. And, you know, I'm not sure that that's a liberal versus conservative issue anyway.



 

[TaleWgnDg]

1. I sat through that ENTIRE interview . . . geezuz!

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I sat through that ENTIRE interview . . . geezuz! Talk about disinformation from the executive editor of The American Spectator Magazine. It was repeat and peat and repeat lies. So he is shilling repeated lies as truths? Nuts. Completely. This disinformation and combative bullshit may fly on Faux Disnews but not on Jim Lehrer's News Hour. No way!

Unfortunately, it's these lies that pass as truths that wrap around today's majority in Congress. Thus, DUers should understand the serious agenda that is in the works by the rightwingers!

Take ACTION! Notify your congresspersons. See DU thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3916723&mesg_id=3916723

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[omega minimo]

2. Neumayr has the same shrugging disease as Bush

Aside from bizarre body language and waxy pallor:

"JEFFREY BROWN: When you refer to it as a "liberal monopoly" you mean you see it as a kind of pervasive matter?

GEORGE NEUMAYR: Well, I think it's been that case, the case for decades. You know, liberals have dominated PBS from the time it was started in 1967. I mean, it was created by Bill Moyers, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and it's really just a liberal Great Society project, and the slant and the tilt of the programming for decades has reflected that."

This nimrod was not even alive in 1967, he's a Wrong Wing lapdog with his talking points memorized. He neglects to point out that what the "slant and tilt of the programming for decades" reflected was the American culture of the time-- a time before the renegade neo-cons turned back the clock on decades of social progress.

:bounce:

[TaleWgnDg]

3. Yup. How true . . .

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Yup. How true . . . and here's Auth's take on the rightwing power play agenda:



As well as, BillDay's (below) take on the rightwing arrogant agenda:



An illustration is still worth a thousand words.

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[omega minimo]

4. I'll see your Auth and raise you two Meyers

[Nikki Stone 1]

7. "It was repeat and peat and repeat lies."

That's exactly the strategy.

And GOD FUCKING FORBID that some imaginary rabbit meets a lesbian couple. Oh my dear Lord in heaven.

(Sorry, I just have Turrette's when it comes to hypocrisy)

[TaleWgnDg]

8. you go!! n/t

[omega minimo]

5. "...one conservative on a liberally-dominated network is not balanced"

"You see, with Bill Moyers, you see -- you know, he uses his show as a platform from which to attack conservatives and Republicans. He's been using it to harangue George Bush over the war, but also, yes, a tone, a liberal tone can be seen throughout the programming on PBS."

[omega minimo]

6. Tap