Senate Passes Conference Report Which Includes Funding for Public Broadcasting

From Association of Public Television Stations

APTS Web site

Last week, the Senate gave public broadcasting an early holiday gift with the passage of the conference report on the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and related agencies appropriations bill. The conference report, which was earlier passed by the House, contains solid funding for public broadcasting programs, even in the midst of these difficult fiscal times. Advance funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in FY2008 was preserved at $400 million, and FY2006 funding levels are:

Corporation for Public Broadcasting (FY06): $400 million
CPB Digital: $30 million
Interconnection: $35 million
Ready To Learn: $24.5 million
Ready To Teach: $11 million

Funding for the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program was set at $22 million in another appropriations bill already signed into law.

All domestic programs will be subject to an across-the-board funding cut, perhaps of approximately 1-2 percent.

Travel With Rick Steves Coming to OPB Radio

Starting Sunday, January 8 at 2pm, Rick Steves, advocate of smart independent travel, will offer his advice to OPB Radio listeners. This fun, hour-long talk show, filled with practical information, will feature expert guests and call-ins from listeners with comments and questions.

"On the program we talk about our favorite travels in Europe, as well as travel anywhere in the U.S. and the rest of the world," said Rick. "We feature profiles of destinations and discuss general topics, as far flung as keeping healthy on vacation, bicycling trips, senior travel, finding chocolates, fear of flying, fear of going home and more."

After each weekly broadcast, listeners can visit Rick's Web site discussion boards and add to the conversation about the world. Rick calls it a place to "explore our world smartly, smoothly and thoughtfully."

Rick Steves has been an OPB TV favorite for a number of years. As host, writer and producer of the popular public television series Rick Steves' Europe and best-selling author of 30 European travel books, he encourages Americans to delve deep into Europe and become "temporary locals." His readers and viewers - and now listeners - not only discover major cities, but also cozy villages away from tourist-trampled routes. He helps American travelers connect much more intimately and authentically with Europe - and Europeans - for a fraction of what mainstream tourists pay.

Rick lives with his wife Anne, and two children, Andy and Jackie, in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington.

Oregon Public Broadcasting Launches Its First Digital Multicast Channel

On January 9, 2006 Oregon Public Broadcasting will launch a new 24-hour channel that will feature OPB productions, national news and talk programs and some of public television's most popular lifestyle and how-to programs. OPB CREATE is OPB's first multicast channel and second channel on its digital transmitters and represents the next step into the digital future. OPB CREATE will also be distributed by Comcast on digital channel 210 available to Comcast digital cable television audiences from Eugene to Vancouver, and on Clear Creek Telephone and TeleVision in Oregon City on digital cable channel 162. This dynamic new service will provide viewers with more flexibility, more choices and greater convenience to watch their favorite public television programs and find new ones.

Weeknights from 6pm-12am OPB CREATE will air BBC World News, Oregon Art Beat, Smart Gardening, Oregon Field Guide, Charlie Rose, The NewsHour, Tavis Smiley and the Nightly Business Report. In addition each week OPB CREATE in partnership with American Public Television will feature 22 high-profile series and specials in its daytime, weekend and overnight schedule. The channel's do-it-yourself genres will include viewers' favorite public television series and specials on cooking, renovating, painting, crafts, travel, gardening and other interests. Current titles range from Rick Steves' Europe Classics to Caprial & John's Kitchen and America's Test Kitchen to P. Allen Smith's Garden Home and Scrapbook Memories. The full schedule for OPB CREATE is available on the OPB Web site.

"OPB CREATE recognizes a commitment to our supporters who contributed to our digital conversion, enabling us to provide added public broadcasting programs through our increased digital channel capacity," said Tom Doggett, OPB vice president of TV Programming. "It gives us an opportunity to serve new and wider audiences. We will also be able to offer our traditional OPB TV viewers more options to watch their favorite programs as well as other public broadcasting programs not available on our normal schedule such as Tavis Smiley, Jacques Pepin, For Your House and more," he said.

Support and funding for OPB CREATE is provided, in part, through contributions to the OPB Capital Campaign which is helping raise the millions of dollars necessary to convert to the mandated digital broadcast system by 2009, and by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) through its Digital Services Fund.

Carlos Kalmar and Symphony Launch Classical Season on OPB Radio With Brahms' Symphony No. 1

Oregon Public Broadcasting Radio opens its second season of Oregon Symphony concert broadcasts on Friday, January 6 from 9-11pm with the powerful music of Brahms' Symphony No. 1 in C minor. The concert showcases the musicians of the Oregon Symphony led by Music Director Carlos Kalmar. The broadcast kicks off a series of classical Oregon Symphony concerts that will be aired on OPB Radio the first Friday in each month for the next nine months.

"OPB is pleased to again partner with the Oregon Symphony to make it possible for people in Oregon and Southern Washington to hear these performances," said Jack Galmiche, executive vice president and COO of Oregon Public Broadcasting. "This is a great opportunity for OPB and the Oregon Symphony to expand the reach of cultural programming to everyone in our listening area."

For the Symphony's 110th season and Kalmar's third as music director, Kalmar has promised a musical adventure featuring new interpretations of well-known masterpieces blended with the Symphony debut of many established symphonic works. "We are trying to create even more of an adventure in the programming this season," Kalmar explains. "I think adventure is very, very important for all of us, especially for the audience."

Kalmar and the orchestra begin the evening with Rossini's well-known Overture to "William Tell," whose many recognizable tunes include the cavalry gallop made famous as the theme to the television show "The Lone Ranger." The concert continues with a Symphony premiere of Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera's "Variaciones concertantes."

The second half of the concert is devoted to Brahms' much-anticipated first symphony, written over a period of 20 years. Dubbed "Beethoven's 10th" by critics of the time, this symphony pays homage to Beethoven's symphonic legacy in the final movement, whose theme closely resembles the "Ode to Joy" melody of Beethoven's ninth symphony (though without choir). The work also established Brahms as an undisputed master of large orchestral forms, from its powerful brooding opening to its joyous finale.

In addition to concerts, OPB and KPBS are collaborating to bring listeners interviews with musicians and conductors during the performance intermission, further enlightening the concert experience. The opening interview features Carlos Kalmar talking to KBPS's Shaun Yu about the music on the first program (Rossini, Ginastera and Brahms).

CPB: Caught in the Balance

Six months ago, OPB's Board of Directors asked OPB radio reporter Colin Fogarty to research the controversy over former CPB chair Ken Tomlinson and the funding debate over public broadcasting on Capitol Hill. He gave this report to the board at its Dec. 6 meeting calling it "an attempt to tell a single comprehensive story about both issues".

Fogarty interviewed many of the key players, including Pat Mitchell at PBS and Ken Stern at NPR, and assembled tape of Ken Tomlinson's comments over the last six months.

Listen to Colin Fogarty's report

Read the report

Links to web sources:

Current reports on the Inspector General's report

Inspector General's report

CPB reforms announced

New CPB Board chair responds

Patricia Harrison responds

Basic facts about CPB

Center for Digital Democracy

Wall Street Journal weighs in

Frederick Mann report

Two Diane Rehm shows on the issue
May 3, 2005
May 18, 2005

Ken Tomlinson interviewed on CSPAN

On the Media interviews Ken Tomlinson

NPR story on Tomlinson invoking White House authority

Original New York Times piece in May (subscription required)

CPB: Caught in the Balance
Colin Fogarty

When Brenda asked me to name this presentation, I spent a long time wracking my brain, trying to come up with something zippy and clever. Finally, I just stole a name from the NPR show On The Media. "CPB: Caught in the Balance". In that segment, in May, CPB Board Chair Kenneth Tomlinson asked this question to host Bob Mondello, and he might as well have been speaking to the entire public broadcasting industry.

Ken Tomlinson: "Why can't you accept let's have one program, if it's tilted one way, let's make sure we have other programs tilted the other way?"

It's important to remember, that Ken Tomlinson's statements on this issue don't get much deeper or more complicated than that. In all the interviews and speeches that I've found, his point comes down to a basic mathematical equation.

Ken Tomlinson: "I don't want to achieve balance by taking programs that are the favorites of good liberals off the air. I want to make sure that when we have programs that tilt left that we also have programs that tilt right so that the viewer can make up his or her own mind. Today you have a 30 minute NOW program in many markets and you have a 30 minute Wall Street Journal program in many markets. People can pick and choose. That's balance."

But is it? At the heart of Ken Tomlinson's rise and fall at the CBP is this fundamental question: what is balance? For Pat Mitchell, the head of the Public Broadcasting Service, it's also a mathematical equation, but one that sounds more like algebra than addition.

Pat Mitchell: "Balance over the course of a schedule, not balance within each and every program."

But Mitchell doesn't like the way Tomlinson frames the question of balance.

Pat Mitchell: "By the way, when did we decide in this world that there are only two sides to every issue. That to me is one of the more dangerous things that has come out of this whole conversation that on every issue there's a Republican and Democratic view and that's it. What happened to the rest of the people?"

Mitchell's view is a lighter shade of a view taken by Tomlinson's arch-nemisis in this story, Bill Moyers.

In May, Moyers gave his definition of balance to the National Conference on Media Reform in St. Louis. He said he was in the room at the creation of the current public broadcasting system as a staffer in the Johnson White House. Moyers said in his view, the role of public broadcasting is to provide a counterweight to the "Washington elite", to seek balance between the governing class and those who are governed. From that perspective, it was he who was trying to bring balance to PBS.

Bill Moyers: "Public television unfortunately all too often was offering the same kind of discussions and a similar brand of insider discourse that is feature regularly on commercial television. I know first hand that the Public Broadcasting Act was meant to provide an alternative to commercial television and to reflect the diversity of the American people."

But there are others who have a more existential view of balance. Our own Maynard Orme, who's had two five-year stints on the PBS board, says balance is like an infinite curve on a graph, that struggles to get closer and closer but never reaches its goal.

Maynard Orme: "It's like truth. It's never attainable totally, because it depends on your brain type. So there is no balance. There never will be. I think fairness, to try to be fair, is another word that's hard...its like truth, only approachable, never achievable."

This debate over balance ripped wide open during Ken Tomlinson's last six months as chair of the CPB board. He specifically targeted Moyers, but made sweeping statements questioning whether NPR and PBS were balanced. The stock response from public broadcasters was essentially, just who do you think you are? And his response back was, I'm the head of CPB. And both sides claim their points of view are backed up by the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act. It says the role of the CPB is to insulate the system from politics. It was part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society ambitions. In signing the act, he said the CPB "will get part of its support from our government. But it will be carefully guarded from government or from party control. It will be free, and it will be independent -- and it will belong to all of our people."

At the same time, federal law says that the CPB is to -- and I'm quoting here... "review, on a regular basis, national public broadcasting programming for quality, diversity, creativity, excellence, innovation, objectivity, and balance, as well as for any needs not met by such programming"

This debate began to unfold last spring, at first quietly and later with screaming headlines in some of the nation's top newspapers.

Ken Tomlinson is the lead character in this narrative.

He lives in rural Virginia, three counties over from DC. He began his career in the 1960s as a reporter, but landed at Reader's Digest in 1968, where he worked until 1982, when he spent two years as head of Voice of America for President Reagan. In 1984, he became executive editor at Reader's Digest and editor in chief in 1989.

Tomlinson retired from that job in 1996 to spend his time on breeding thoroughbreds and racing them. In the Bush administration, he's also head of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is the umbrella agency for Radio Free Europe and Radio Sowa. He was first named to the CPB board in September, 2000 by President Clinton. He was elected chair in September, 2003.

After that, Tomlinson doesn't make much news. But behind the scenes he was already making waves. In December of 2003, he sent a letter to PBS head Pat Mitchell complaining about Now with Bill Moyers, saying the show in his words "does not contain anything approaching the balance the law requires". But this conflict remained quiet until April 5, 2005.

That's when the CPB established an ombudsman office, with two commentators for all public broadcasting programming, one from the left and one from the right. They are NBC producer Ken Bode, who was host of Washington Week in Review in the 1990s, and former Reader's Digest executive editor William Schulz. This decision raised a lot of eye brows since the CPB is a funding agency, and any comment on programming or content comes with it an implicit threat that strings are attached to those dollars. Tomlinson tried to allay those worries by saying the CPB "will not permit concerns over balance to allow CPB to engage in pre-broadcast censorship or post-broadcast penalties of public broadcasters." but "will help ensure the goal of balance and accuracy in public broadcasting." I should also note that the job pays $50,000 a year and to date the two ombudsmen have produced nine essays between them.

A few days later on April 8th, another public indication that something was up was the surprise resignation of Kathleen Cox, who was president of CPB. At the time, she and Ken Tomlinson released a statement saying she was there to work on certain tasks and those were done, so it was time to go. But as we'll find out later, it was a lot more complex than that.

In April, CPB had a meeting, in which the board told its staff to redirect the remaining grant money for public radio away from news programming and toward music. Part of the debate in that meeting revolved around a story told by one member of the board, Gay Hart Gaines, Newt Gingrich's former political action committee chair. She said on her way over her taxi driver complained that his local public radio station had dropped classical music. NPR's executive vice president Ken Stern says the board's decision that stemmed from that story contradicted a year of work and study by CPB staff and public radio programmers.

Ken Stern: "Completely dumped. It's a backwards way of thinking about it. It's a factless, opinion driven process by people who are really public broadcasting professions."

Still, though, this rising tension was happening behind the scenes. That started to change.

In April 24th, 2005, the New York Times Magazine had an interview with Ken Ferree, who was at the time the interim president after Kathleen Cox. He said he doesn�t watch much PBS and described the Newshour with Jim Leher as "akin to Shakespeare" at the end of the day. "Sometimes I really just want a People magazine" he said. This of course was quite alarming to people who devote their lives to serious minded educational and public affairs broadcasting.

Then, a week later, on May second, the story burst wide open in the New York Times. The headline was "Chairman exerts pressure on PBS, alleges biases". It described three basic charges, that Tomlinson hired someone directly from the White House to establish that ombudsman program, that he hired a consultant to monitor bias on public television and radio, and that he was working to balance Now with Bill Moyers with the more conservative Journal Editorial Report. The reporter at the Times, Stephan Labaton was on NPR�s Diane Rehm show the next day.

Stephan Labaton: "The flashpoint between the programmers and the CPB is whether this effort at what Ken Tomlinson calls "objectivity and balance" is really a veneer for something else, whether it's overall objective is really to turn public broadcasting into a more conservative Republican direction, something that Tomlinson denies adamantly."

Something else that came up in the Diane Rehm show that day was two surveys commissioned by the CPB in 2002 and 2003 but not released to the public. Paul Farhi with the Washington Post described what the pollsters found.

Paul Farhi: "They found that the public gave both NPR and PBS quite high marks in terms of their fairness and balance, relative to other media and in and of itself. In trying to find bias, CPB could not find the bias in the public, that the public perceived that bias."

Diane Rehm: "So why then if those polls were conducted, why do you suppose this issue is coming up now?"

Paul Farhi: "Because there are about 535 people whose opinion really matter. Those are the people in Congress who vote the funds for the CPB and ultimately for public television and radio."

As we heard from Tomlinson earlier, his principle target was Bill Moyers who he alleged was using the show to promote a liberal agenda. When Tomlinson appeared on NPR's On the Media on May 6th, Bob Mondello took him to task.

Bob Mondello: "Ken, aren't you confusing liberalism with journalism? The two have a lot in common...suspicion of authority, sympathy with the little guy, the instinct to reform, and so on. Of course Frontline and Now with Bill Moyers will question the establishment, will question power, no matter who is in power, which ever party. That isn't ideological bias, Ken. It's journalism."

Ken Tomlinson: "I beg to differ. I have no have a quarrel at all with Frontline. I did have a quarrel with the politics of the Moyers show. But did I want it removed? Absolutely not."

The head of PBS, Pat Mitchell throughout this time was a staunch defender of Now with Moyers. She says the Journal Editorial Report was dominated by one side of the politic spectrum, which she said was not the case with Now.

Pat Mitchell: "The show took complex, difficult issues of importance to the American people and examined from all different points of view. And if you look over the time of Now's broadcast, you will see liberal voices conservative voices, and most importantly, out of the mainstream voice."

One other piece of news around this time that CPB had considered ways to monitor NPR to document what Tomlinson and others on the board considered anti-Israel news coverage. But as far as I can tell, they never figured out a methodology to do that study.

On May 11th two House Democrats John Dingell and David Obey wanted a study of their own. They asked CPB's Inspector General Kenneth Konz to look into allegations that Tomlinson was exerting political pressure on PBS and NPR.

A few days later, on May 16th, Bill Moyers gave that speech in St. Louis to the National Conference on Media Reform. He had nothing but disdain for Tomlinson, recounting how back in the 1970s Richard Nixon wanted Moyers off the air.

Bill Moyers: "I always knew Nixon would be back...again and again. I just didn't know that this time, he would ask to be chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting."

Moyers also questioned the $10,000 spent to monitor his show.

Bill Moyers: "Jeekin! For two dollars and 50 cents a week, you could pick up a copy of TV guide on the newsstand. Or for that matter, Ken all you had to do was watch the show. Hell, Ken, you could have called me collect and I would have told you who we were having on the show."

Two days later May 18, Ken Tomlinson appeared on NPR's Diane Rehm show, trying to tone down the rhetoric.

Ken Tomlinson: "This debate has gotten a little hot in recent days and I think we need to turn down the temperature. While sometimes a debate over balance is healthy, sometimes it gets to the point beyond which it's healthy. I think Bill Moyers' Now program represented outstanding broadcasting. He's a very talented and gifted man. It's just that Bob Dylan said you don't need a weather vane to see which way the wind is blowing. It was not a balanced program."

Diane Rehm asked Tomlinson about those CPB polls in 2002 and 2003 showing that a majority of Americans don't believe bias is a problem on public broadcasting. Tomlinson said while the surveys were good, they do show a perception of bias. Rehm pressed him on statistics.

Diane Rehm: "While approximately one in five detects a liberal bias and approximately one in ten detects a conservative bias."

Ken Tomlinson: "That's a proper reflection of the poll."

Diane Rehm: "Well then how does that lead us to believe that we must have something to balance a program like Bill Moyers?"

Ken Tomlinson: "Well, do you agree that Bill Moyers was liberal advocacy journalism?"

Diane Rehm avoided answering that question as deftly as Tomlinson had just evaded hers. But in this interview, Tomlinson said something that would be relevant later. He had been talking all along about the value of having the Journal Editorial Report with Paul Gigot on the air to balance out Now, but he downplayed his role, giving Pat Mitchell credit.

Ken Tomlinson: "Pat made the initial contact with Paul Gigot, the Wall Street Journal. The decision to fund the show was done by our professionals within CPB. I do not participate in those decisions."

Later, the CPB Inspector General said Tomlinson did play a pivotal role. In fact, the Wall Street Journal even said it was Tomlinson who contacted Gigot in December 2003 and the two exchanged a number of emails about it. Keep in mind, Tomlinson's emails point out that the CPB doesn't have control over programming decisions.

Pat Mitchell told me the idea of putting the Journal Editorial Report on the air goes back to 9-11 when PBS made a decision to, as she put it "strengthen the public square". She said as PBS was considering Tucker Carlson Unfiltered, it also liked the idea of a show with Paul Gigot, but went with Carlson instead. So, when Tucker Carlson went to MSNBC, she said the PBS programming team turned to the Journal Editorial Report.

Back to our 2005 timeline. We're now in early June.

June 9th, a House budget subcommittee voted to slash funding for the CPB by $100 million. This was a rescission, that reached back in time, cutting money already promised to stations. The subcommittee also voted to zero out future funding. Taken along with cuts to related programs -- like one to help rural TV stations convert to digital television -- this amounted to a 45 per cent cut in federal funding for public broadcasting. Those close to this debate say because of strife and confusion at CPB, public broadcasting looked like a weak doe in a family of deer, being stalked by wolves. In the next two weeks, what happened though was a huge grass roots lobbying effort across the nation. There was even a group of home schoolers and an organization of stay-at-home moms who joined the fray.

A week after that subcommittee vote, the New York Times reported in more detail about what the Inspector General was investigating. We learned that Konz was looking into $15,000 in payments by CPB to two Republican lobbyists.

One of them, Brian Darling had resigned from a Senate staff position after he wrote a memo describing how to politically exploit Terri Schiavo. Regardless of who the lobbyists were, though, the CPB had previously said that it would be against the law to directly lobby Congress. What's more, neither of these payments were disclosed to the full board. They were handled exclusively by Ken Tomlinson. We'll get to what the IG said about that later. All this was separate from a contract with Frederick Mann, a consultant in Indiana. Tomlinson paid him a total of $14,000 to examine Now with Bill Moyers, NPR's Diane Rehm Show, the Tavis Smiley Show, and PBS's Tucker Carlson Unfiltered. Mann's report was not released by the CPB. Tomlinson said on the Diane Rehm show he was successful in convincing PBS to get Journal Editorial Report, he dropped the study.

Ken Tomlinson: "When that disagreement ended, then I didn't need any consultant to grade the Bill Moyers show to demonstrate its point of view and I turned the page and we moved on."

On June 18th, a few days after that story on the lobbyists, the New York Times reported that back in March and April, Ken Tomlinson had exchanged many emails with Mary Andrews at the White House on setting up an ombudsman program at the CPB. She was still on the White House payroll at the time, but was on her way to a position at the CPB.

By this time, Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey called for Tomlinson to resign for trying to "inject partisan politics" into the CPB.

June 23rd, 2005 was a big day for public broadcasting. Two things happened: first, the CPB board hired Patricia Harrison as president and CEO. From 1997 to 2001, she was co-chair of the Republican National Committee and she worked in the State Department in the Bush administration. Ken Stern at NPR said her lack of experience in broadcasting was what most concerned him. And he said the timing was lousy for Harrison.

Ken Stern: "I think it's only the confluence of what Tomlinson has done at CPB and her background that bring sort of scrutiny to her role. But that being said I think people in public radio, generally are willing to give her now that she's here the opportunity to show that she can work in a nonpartisan professional manner, designed to advance the historic role of CPB and advance the purposes of public broadcasting."

The same day, June 23rd, the House voted to restore that $100 million. This was a surprise and to understand how it happened, I talked with Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer. He co-chairs the public broadcasting caucus in the US House. It has 109 members, mostly Democrats, but also some Republicans. He said, the debate over CPB funding was happening as Tom DeLay's legal troubles were brewing.

Second, he says many House Republicans were chafing under budgetary hard ball. So, on June 23rd those dynamics created a chance for a little rebellion against restrictive rules in the House.

Earl Blumenauer: "On critical issues today, it's not uncommon for all the decisions to be made by a dozen or fewer people, half of whom are not elected. Well, this bothers a number of Republicans. So the combination of they felt uncomfortable with what was going on, and it was a chance to assert some independence meant that we had a potential playing field of what I felt 100 people. We got 87 Republicans to vote with every single Democrat. This sends a message that this isn't one of the areas to mess around with."

A week later, on June 30th NPR got a copy of that thus far illusive Frederick Mann report, which the CPB never released officially. Mann categorized guests on Now with Bill Moyers as liberal, conservative, or neutral. Not surprisingly, it found more liberals than conservatives, but Mann's definition of liberal appeared to be "critical of the Bush administration or Tom DeLay". For example, listed as liberal were some reporters, and Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, apparently because he disagreed with the Bush administration on Iraq. It was faxed to CPB from a Hallmark Cards shop in West Lafayette, Indiana. NPR's executive vice president Ken Stern called the methodology a "mockery" and "laughable".

Ken Stern: "I think it just showed he wasn't interested in having an open, careful, thoughtful dialogue. He was interested in bootstrapping his political views onto public broadcasting. And fortunately, it was an effort that has not taken root so far."

On July 11 Patricia Harrison and Ken Tomlinson appeared before a budget subcommittee chaired by Arlan Spector. This was one of Harrison's first public appearances in her new job and she struck a diplomatic tone

Patricia Harrison: "I believe that public broadcasting is in the public interest, that it furthers the general welfare of all our citizens. Public broadcasting strengthens our civil society and it merits the investment of moneys represented by our budget for 06 and 08."

In that hearing, Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin pressed Ken Tomlinson on what role he played in getting the Journal Editorial Report on the air.

Dick Durbin: "Did you feel that it was your responsibility or authority to go out and put together the Wall Street Editorial page show?"

Ken Tomlinson: "I felt that the law required us to reflect balance in our current affairs program."

By this time, North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan asked Kenneth Konz to widen his investigation into Patricia Harrison's hiring.

On July 24, Ken Tomlinson did an hour long q-and-a session with Brian Lamb on C-Span. Lamb asked him about something Paul Gigot said, complaining about how a lot of stations either didn't pick up his show or put it in the wasteland of the middle of the night. Tomlinson seemed to agree.

Ken Tomlinson: "But I would never try to push the system publicly to change that because this is a delicate system. And I've never tried local televisions run the show."

It was also around this time that Patricia Harrison spoke to the National Educational Telecommunications Association. She made sure to distinguish herself from her immediate predecessor, Ken Faree -- the one who said he never watched public television -- by naming a long list of personal connections to public television: a college internship at WAMU, an interview later on the Diane Rehm show, Big Bird told her daughter to write the letter "L" with lipstick on the mirror. Harrison also it was her job at the state department to create cultural exchanges in a non-partisan, non-political way.

Patricia Harrison: "And this is just one of the reasons I am committed to protecting the nonpartisan nature of public broadcasting. [applause] The 1967 legislation which created CPB instructed that it be free of political or government interference and that it represent a diversity of views. And believe me, after you've run almost a 120,000 exchanges for almost four years from every country in the world, every race, every ethnicity, every economic and religious level, every political opinion, you're very comfortable hearing a diversity of views and in fact you welcome them."

In Harrison's words, "I want to see us shape the debate and not be in a reactive position". Meanwhile, Ken Tomlinson's two-year term as chair was up in September. September 27th, Cheryl Halpern was selected as the new chair of the CPB board. This didn't really comfort Tomlinson's critics because Halpern is a major Republican fundraiser. After being elected by her colleagues on the board, she vowed to continue to encourage "objectivity and balance" in public broadcasting. Traditionally, the chair and the vice chair of CPB come from different parties, but in this case, the vice chair is Gay Hart Gaines, an interior designer and also a major GOP donor. Both of them were originally recess appointments back in 2003.

For the next five weeks after the change in leadership at CPB, the controversy remained quiet as those in the industry and at CPB waited for the Inspector General's report, due on November 15th. But a few things happened first.

On November 1 the Wall Street Journal told PBS that it would not be renewing the Journal Editorial Report for a third season. The paper called it a "business decision". One of the reasons it gave is that eight of the top 30 public television stations don�t run the show at all and another four run it after midnight.

OPB, by the way, airs the Journal show at 6pm on Fridays. I talked with Pat Mitchell before this decision, and she told me PBS was already concerned about the show because it found that viewers couldn't tell that it was primarily an opinion and commentary show, not a news program. And she felt it may violate PBS's editorial standards, to make the difference between news and opinion very clear.

Either way, the Wall Street Journal and PBS divorced and last week, the Journal Editorial Report landed on the Fox network after several months of behind the scenes discussions.

In the meantime, November 3rd, the CPB board under Cheryl Halpern saw the IG's report. Ken Tomlinson promptly resigned and the board released this cryptic statement.

"The board does not believe that Mr. Tomlinson acted maliciously or with any intent to harm CPB or public broadcasting, and the board recognizes that Mr. Tomlinson strongly disputes the findings in the soon-to-be-released Inspector General's report. The board expresses its disappointment in the performance of former key staff whose responsibility it was to advise the Board and its members. Nonetheless, both the board and Mr. Tomlinson believe it is in the best interests of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that he no longer remain on the board. The board commends Mr. Tomlinson for his legitimate efforts to achieve balance and objectivity in public broadcasting."

November 15th, the IG delivered his report.

It boils down to three basic charges, one that Tomlinson overstepped his authority in dealing directly with the Journal Editorial Report. Remember, Tomlinson downplayed his precise role. But the report found that he pushed hard, that he admonished senior staff to stay out of the way of his efforts to bring more balance to PBS programming, and -- here is the most serious and damning accusation in the report -- that Tomlinson threatened to hold up funding to PBS, quote "in a New York minute", if he didn't get his way.

The second charge is that Tomlinson had what Konz called "political tests" for the hiring of the current CPB president, Patricia Harrison

CPB did go through a 79-day executive search with a firm, but the IG notes that even before any of that was done Tomlinson spoke with quote "staff of the Executive Office of the President," and that the person ultimately hired was in fact the same one discussed with the White House. Konz stopped short in the report of identifying that staff has Karl Rove, but later confirmed it in press interviews. But he has said that Tomlinson sent Rove emails about developing a conservative talk show and quote "shaking up" CPB by hiring more Republicans. Tomlinson has said hiring a more "political" person would be good for CPB. By the way, the IG report includes a statement by the former CPB president Kathleen Cox, claiming that Tomlinson told her that he wanted her out because her quote "personal integrity" was getting in the way.

On the third charge of hiring a consultant to monitor programs, the Inspector General said that's consistent with the law, the 1992 Public Telecommunications Act specifically gives the CPB authority to
"review, on a regular basis, national public broadcasting programming for quality, diversity, creativity, excellence, innovation, objectivity, and balance, as well as for any needs not met by such programming;" but the IG found that "problems arose" when Tomlinson failed to tell the board and that the CPB doesn�t have a clear policy on handling these kinds of issues.

Another charge that Tomlinson contracted with Republican lobbyists, which is also against the rules, the IG says they provided only strategic advice, not direct lobbying of members of Congress. So that wasn't a violation of the law. But again, the IG portrays the rules about these things as squishy.

In Konz's words, "Our review found an organizational environment that allowed the former Chairman and other CPB executives to operate without appropriate checks and balances."

Here's how Maynard Orme described it.

Maynard Orme: "There was a certain lack of clarity about what the policies and procedures were, which gives someone like a Tomlinson the ability to go in and do things and claim innocence and say, well, there's nothing that says I can't do this."

Tomlinson called the Inspector General's report "malicious and irresponsible" and said it would discourage other reformers like him from seeking change. "As a result," he said "balance and objectivity will not come soon to elements of public broadcasting".

The Wall Street Journal issued a scathing response to the IG report, at one point saying that calling Kenneth Konz Inspector Cluseau would be an insult to Peter Sellers. The paper argued that it was PBS that came to them, not the other way around. And besides, they don't see the big deal in Tomlinson being in contact with them, if part of CPB's job is to insure balance. Pat Mitchell told me it was not Tomlinson, but PBS, who decided to put the Journal Editorial Report on the air

Pat Mitchell: "I just think it's very important for your board to understand that CPB did not put that program on PBS. CPB does not have the power, and certainly not their board, to put anything on PBS."

This general point -- not just the specifics of Tomlinson and the Journal Editorial Report -- was a very important point to Pat Mitchell. In fact, she told me when she visits stations she spends at least an hour talking about it.

Pat Mitchell: "Because none of these things are simple yes or no answers. And there's so much at stake in people really understand the difference, this swirling controversy about the definition of balance, what their job is, what our job is. And the last year has been fractious. And each of us has a mission, each of us has a reason for existence. And I'd like us to get back to the business of that. CPB's charter calls for them to distribute federal funds and to be a firewall, a heat shield between those funds and content distributed by PBS and any public television station. That is critical, a critical component to the independence of public broadcasting. We are independent, therefore nonpartisan, with no political agenda. And it is essential for I think the support of this institution going forward that that independence is reaffirmed in every way possible."

Now, one way to do that, would be for public broadcasters to simply divorce themselves from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Why not? Isn't it time? The answer I got universally was no. It's simply too much money and though not the largest portion of funding, it's still important nonetheless. National Public Radio, gets just one per cent of its budget from CPB, usually for special things, digital radio, satellite radio, and start ups like the midday show, Day 2 Day. But NPR is primarily funded by member stations and they get an average of 11 per cent from the CPB. Some get more, for example Alaska Public Radio gets half its budget from CPB and one station in rural northern Arizona is the only source of news for the area. In 2002, there were rampant wildfires there and KNNB was the only source of information about what to do and where the fires were. KNNB gets 2/3 thirds of its budget from CPB and would simply go out of existence with it.

OPB by the way about 15 per cent of the budget from the CPB, which is about average for most public television stations. Aside from the practical considerations, there's a more philosophical point that many, including Maynard Orme, make about the role of federal funding.

Maynard Orme: "Without it, you're just another commercial station. And then you're starting to pander to whatever you think those needs are. And then I think you lose your soul, you lose the very thing that gets you here. So I am an absolutely believer that the federal government should pony up money for this public service.

So what's the lesson here? What are public broadcasting to take away from the last year. Pat Mitchell offers one observation.

Pat Mitchell: "The lesson learned here is that people like to see people on the air who agree with their point of view. And when they don't agree with their point of few, they tend to call them biased. And that, by the way, comes from the left as well as the right."

But what about next time? Remember, the current chair and vice chair of the CPB are big contributors to the Bush Cheney campaign. Of course, after the Inspector General's report, anyone at CPB wanting to come in a shake things up is going top think twice.

But Skip Hinton, with the National Education Telecommunications Association, said the IG report lacked a certain narrative.

Skip Hinton: "Honestly, I was not real impressed with the glue. It doesn't tell much of a story. It was really a statement of this happened in the following manner and on these dates. I think its up to us now to go in and read with a little more depth and draw some conclusions and really write the narrative in the context of how this story should help us behave in the future. And I really am talking inside the family now.

Hinton told me that our interview was the first time he was articulating this notion. He took personal responsibility what happened with Ken Tomlinson.

Skip Hinton: "I don't believe there were many people who were even half way watching who didn't have some sense of the fact that CPB was taking steps to utilize their resources, or the resources they have on behalf of licensees, to influence program decisions both at PBS and also at the station level. And with that hint of that activity going on, I think it certainly was the responsibility of those of us who were supposed to pay attention to this, and who are supposed to help the licensees pay attention to this, I think in the end we did a rather poor job here."

All of this leaves a number of unanswered questions, not the least of which is this: If Patricia Harrison was hired for political interests, should she stay on? And next time the board wants to get rid of executive like Kathleen Cox, are they going to provide a $600,000 "golden parachute"?

Another question is if the loose "organizational environment" at CPB contributed to Tomlinon's "problems" what is the board doing to tighten the rules? The board announced a series of internal reforms. Two new committees were formed on corporate governance and executive compensation. The board said the moves were aimed at bringing more transparency as well as quote "insulating public broadcasting from undue political influence". But critics of CPB want to go way beyond procedural changes. The industry has been pushing ways to get people with actual broadcasting expertise on the board. Some argue CPB board members should not be appointed by the president at all.

The last issue in limbo is this year's CPB appropriation. As it stands now, with the June vote in the House, CPB is facing a one per cent cut, which is apparently the best case scenario in this budget cutting environment. This restoration held last month when the Labor HHS budget came up in the House. But the whole bill went down over other issues, not related to CPB funding. It's not clear when or how that budget bill will be resolved.

I'll end with an observation about the structure of public broadcasting that I think links the stories of Ken Tomlinson and Bill Moyers together, that sheds light on both the strength and weakness of public broadcasting. It's an observation made by the Wall Street Journal in the paper's response to the Inspector General report.

"The PBS system resembles late Ching Dynasty China: The Emperor at headquarters may give an order, but the warlords who program individual stations might or might not follow it. This is supposed to mean 'local control', but in practice it means a group of programmers can work together to damage any new show."

Now, the Wall Street Journal thinks this dispersed structure is a bad thing. But to others, that is the very reason someone like Ken Tomlinson can't just waltz in and shake things up. What all that local control does is make programmers sensitive to local tastes and opinions. But that's also why public broadcasting has a tendency to be risk averse. Remember, Bill Moyers complained PBS too often succumbs to providing a safe brand of "insider discourse". So, as the issue of balance on public broadcasting leaves the headlines, local stations -- for better or worse -- have proven their ability to give the system its own definition of balance. Thank you very much.

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Author's note: After the live presentation, the incoming CEO of Oregon Public Broadcasting Steve Bass pointed out an issue that I left out. One "backstory", as he called it, was an early conflict between Tomlinson and public broadcasters was over the make up of the board of CPB. The Association of America's Public Television Stations wanted more broadcast professionals on the board, but Tomlinson fought the plan. He apparently also took personal offense at the APTS move.