Objectivity and Balance

A recent NY Times story about Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), describes him as pressuring PBS to “adhere to the ‘objectivity and balance’ language in the charter.” How did he see fit to exert such pressure? In addition to hiring an outside consultant to keep a list of guests who appeared on Now, with Bill Moyers, he also personally raised the money necessary to get The Journal Editorial Report, with Paul Gigot, editor of the Wall Street Journal on PBS.

How has this helped create “objectivity and balance” on PBS?

Public television executives noted that Mr. Gigot’s show by design features the members of the conservative editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, while Mr. Moyers’s guests included many conservatives, like Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition; Richard Viguerie, a conservative political strategist; and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

So a show with balanced news coverage has now been “balanced” by pairing it with a show run by “the most dishonest editorial page in the country.”