The Republican head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kenneth Tomlinson, has come under fire from Democrats because he has sought to bring editorial balance to programming aired on NPR and PBS, which the CPB funds. But here’s a distressing thought from Tomlinson:
“For whatever reason, the American people seem to support it. … I’m not for government getting into areas that are served by others. I do think public broadcasting is a fact of life in this country. You’re not going to defund it,” he said.
What a self contradiction, and a disappointing conclusion. Why does the strive for “balance” in everything public seem to blind many conservatives to the need to eliminate many of the entities that they’re trying to “balance?”
President Bush would do better to appoint someone at CPB (Tomlinson’s time is up in September) whose mission will be to phase out funding this unneeded organization with the ultimate goal of shutting it down.