I just received this message:

Media Is the Issue
PBS is in jeopardy. Today's New York Times describes secret efforts by
Republican operatives to make our Public Broadcasting System more "fair
and balanced."
Kenneth Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting (CPB) -- the government-funded organization that
was designed to shield PBS from political pressure -- is aggressively
pressing PBS to correct what he considers "liberal bias."
He secretly hired a White House staffer to help draft "guiding
principles" for the future of CPB. He brought in a consultant to
monitor the "anti-Bush" and "anti-Tom Delay" content on Bill Moyers'
NOW program, and then set up and funded right-wing commentator Paul
Gigot's new PBS program. Now Tomlinson is working behind the scenes to
stack CPB's board and executive offices with Republican Party cronies.
Together we can stop this partisan attack. Join our call to Congress,
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS station managers to:
1. Remove Kenneth Tomlinson from the CPB board.
2. Return PBS to the people by holding local town meetings in your
community. We the public -- not partisan political operatives -- should
decide what we want from PBS.
Tomlinson told the Times that he's trying to restore "objectivity and
balance" to public broadcasting. This top-down partisan meddling goes
against the very nature of PBS and the local stations we trust. Let the
people speak and decide the future of PBS, not secret dealings by White
House operatives.
Josh Silver, Exec. Director www.freepress.net

P.S. To learn more read the recent report on "Building a Public
Broadcasting System that Deserves Public Support" by Free Press,
Consumers Union, Common Cause, Media Access Project, and the Consumer
Federation of America.


My comment: First, WETA dropped classical music and now, this!