Senator Feinstein Urges
Removal of Public Broadcast Chairman
June 21, 2005
Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and 14 other
Senators today urged the removal of Kenneth Tomlinson from his post as Chairman of the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting for actively undermining the credibility of public broadcasting.
“The Corporation for Public
Broadcasting exists – to ensure independence and freedom from political
influence. Its mission is to protect public broadcasting from political
persuasions of either side. Yet today, we are seeing the exact opposite. Mr.
Tomlinson’s actions appear to not just ignore the mission of CPB, but
to blatantly contradict it,” Senator Feinstein said. "What appears to be happening is really a kind of political
jaundicing of public broadcasting and I think that is wrong.”
“Press reports have highlighted
a pattern of political activities that have been advanced under Mr.
Tomlinson’s leadership. Allegations about diverting tax payer monies to
Republican lobbyists and consultants to monitor content under the guise of
trying to make the programming more ‘balanced.’ We all know that what is
needed to create balance is subjective. There are allegations from all sides
of the political spectrum that the media is too liberal or too conservative.
In addition, when the House
sought to cut the Corporation’s budget by nearly $200 million, Mr. Tomlinson
did not rise to publicly fight the cut. This is astounding. I don’t know any
CEO or Chairman of the Board who wouldn’t stand up and fight for its dollars
needed to support its budget.
Our public broadcast stations
enjoy broad support from the American people – 80%. And they play a vital
role in educating the public, especially our children. I dare say the approval
rating of Elmo far outshines the approval rating of Congress or the
Administration.
We should be doing all we can to
support the mission of public broadcasting and strengthen its financial
standing – not undermining it. I join my colleagues in asking Mr. Tomlinson
to step down as Chair. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting deserves a
chair who will be its staunch advocate and fight for financial security and
programming independence – not an advocate for politics as usual.”
The following is a letter sent by to the
President by Senators Schumer, Feinstein, Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Debbie
Stabenow (D-MI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Joseph Lieberman
(D-CT), Jon Corzine (D-NJ), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Edward
Kennedy (D-MA), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Barbara Boxer (D-CA),
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA):
Dear Mr. President:
We are writing to urge you to call for the
removal of the Chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kenneth
Tomlinson. We strongly disagree with your Administration’s decision to
appoint an individual to head a not-for-profit corporation such as public
broadcasting who is actively undermining, under-funding, and ultimately
undoing its mission.
We believe that the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting (CPB), in particular the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) is an
invaluable resource for our TV-watching public. Since Congress created this
not-for-profit entity in 1967, it has become one of the most relied upon
sources of news and educational programs for all Americans, and especially
children.
PBS is among the most balanced sources of
news and other programming that can be found on television today. Most of its
member stations have moved into the digital age, offering quality programming
in High Definition; and it can still be watched over the airwaves, without
subscribing to special satellite services or cable companies.
Mr. Tomlinson hid polls from the public that
show that public support for PBS is in the stratosphere – 80 percent of
Americans believe that public television is “fair and balanced.” He has taken
a political agenda into his Chairman’s office, suggesting that PBS is not
balanced; spending unnecessary funds to investigate individual news programs
for bias; adjusting programming to cut news programs because of perceived
bias; and hiring expensive lobbyists to strategize about how to encourage
senators to oppose a bill that would have allowed individual public television
stations to have more representations on the board of the CPB.
Mr. Tomlinson is now placing the
impartiality of the CPB in question by nominating Patricia Harrison to be the
new CPB President—she is a former co-chair of the Republican National
Committee.
Moreover, the Republican leadership in the
House has sought to cut nearly $200 million for CPB’s budget. In particular,
they cut PBS’s “Ready to Learn” shows such as Reading Rainbow and Sesame
Street by $23 million in the House Appropriations Committee. Mr. Tomlinson
didn’t even speak out publicly against this drastic cut to public television’s
budget.
Public television is a valuable resource for
all Americans and it should not be undermined by appointed leadership that has
a political agenda. We urge you to immediately replace Mr. Tomlinson with an
executive who takes his or her responsibility to the public television system
seriously, not one who so seriously undermines the credibility and mission of
public television. Thank you for your time and consideration.”
| 
Democracy
for America
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Orange County
