| July 1, 2005 Good News, Bad News Republican Assault On Public Broadcasting Thwarted ... For Now by Katy Parrish, insurgent49  Last
week, media activists across the nation were alerted to the GOP's
efforts to cut funding to NPR and PBS thanks to MoveOn and FreePress.
The good news is that on Thursday, June 23rd, in a landslide,
bipartisan 284-104 vote, the House restored $100 million to the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s fiscal 2006 budget, running
counter to the Bush administration’s master plan. It was an
impressive demonstration of the powerful pressure citizen support for
public broadcasting is capable of. Sadly, equally vocal lobbies don’t exist for rural emergency medical services and other health, education and social service programs cut by the same legislation. Nor does the bill restore $23 million for the public TV Ready to Learn program for kids, or $89 million for satellite overhaul and public television’s federally mandated transition to digital TV. (There’s an old good news/bad news joke in public TV: The good news is you have partial funding, the bad news is you have partial funding.) On the same day, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting appointed Patricia S. Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, to be its next president and chief executive. Ms. Harrison, an assistant secretary of state, has no significant broadcasting experience. So how did she get appointed? She must be an excellent mouthpiece. No experience in broadcasting. No experience understanding the broadcast spectrum. No experience in legitimate fundraising. But hey, maybe she has experience in raising the acetylcholine levels of her neocon buddies. We are facing the death of a true public broadcasting system. Why? Because the GOP's agenda is to embrace the narrow view of corporate media's hypnotizing message of consumption that enslaves the minds we hope to inspire, empower and revolutionize. "As president of the corporation, Ms. Harrison will oversee the distribution of federal money to thousands of public radio and television stations and producers of programs. The selection of Ms. Harrison was not unexpected”, Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson said in an interview in April that she was his top choice. (New York Times, 06/24/05) One of the keystones in the current campaign to preserve public broadcasting is a speech Bill Moyers made in St. Louis on May 15 at the National Conference on Media Reform. It was, in part, a response to the revelation that, unbeknownst to his board, Corporation for Public Broadcasting Tomlinson paid an outside consultant to monitor the political leanings of the guests appearing on the PBS program “NOW with Bill Moyers.” I witnessed this historic speech and will be forever graced by Bill's autograph in my journal from that conference. I requested his autograph on my knees, whispering, "You're my hero!" Yeah, I'm a twisted groupie. (I'm so twisted, I made my boyfriend listen to Bill's first media reform conference speech on our first date. Yeah, he fought not to snore. Yeah, we're still together!) Over the last week and a half, via The New York Times and the office of North Dakota Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan, more has been learned about Fred Mann, the consultant Tomlinson hired, and the results of his research. Mann was a Republican campaign consultant who wrote for the conservative National Review and was employed by the National Journalism Center, a Virginia-based organization that trains conservative journalists and finds them employment. It was founded by the American Conservative Union and is administered by the right-wing Young America’s Foundation. Raw data Tomlinson provided to Sen. Dorgan’s office showed that Mann was monitoring not only Moyers, but also those who appeared on shows hosted by Tavis Smiley and Diane Rehm of National Public Radio. As New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote Sunday: ”Their guests were rated either L for liberal or C for conservative, and ‘anti administration’ was affixed to any segment raising questions about the Bush presidency. Thus was the conservative Republican Senator Chuck Hagel given the same L as Bill Clinton simply because he expressed doubts about Iraq in a discussion mainly devoted to praising Ronald Reagan. Three of The Washington Post’s star beat reporters (none of whom covers the White House or politics or writes opinion pieces) were similarly singled out simply for doing their job as journalists by asking questions about administration policies.” Mann’s job was “to assemble what smells like the rough draft of a blacklist.” Rich quoted Sen. Dorgan: “It’s pretty scary stuff to judge media, particularly public media, by whether it’s pro- or anti- the president. It’s unbelievable.” It turned out there was a blacklist of people who had been removed from the list of prominent Americans sent abroad to lecture on behalf of America and the USIA. What’s more, it was discovered that evidence as to how those people were chosen to be on the blacklist, more than 700 documents, had been shredded. “Among those on the lists of journalists, writers, scholars and politicians were dangerous left-wing subversives like Walter Cronkite, James Baldwin, Gary Hart, Ralph Nader, Ben Bradley, Coretta Scott King and David Brinkley. The person who took the fall for the blacklist was another right-winger. He resigned. Shortly thereafter, so did Kenneth Tomlinson, who had been one of the people in the agency with the authority to see the lists of potential speakers and allowed to strike people’s names.” Has this been reported in corporate media? No, and does this surprise you? It shouldn’t. Personally, I'm done with this system. I'm channeling my energy into creating alternative media and focusing on the youth. My son is spearheading an alternative youth media group. We have recruited board members and will incorporate as a nonprofit within the next six months. We believe that the youth of this nation are our hope for the future. We believe that we can be the media. We know that the broadcast spectrum is one of the most valuable resources next to water. We are studying and critiquing the current system to learn from its mistakes. We are committed to grassroots, quality broadcasting for the voices of the marginalized. We will present a new view...a view that inspires, empowers and stokes the fire of revolution. Katy Parrish is a freelance writer and media activist who can be reached at takebackthemedia@hotmail.com. |
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2005
Insurgent Media. All Rights
Reserved. in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership. |
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