I have always considered the Winston-Salem Journal editorial page to be one of the more sensible ones among major North Carolina dailies ? not ideologically sympatico, of course, but at least sensible. Today?s editorial on the public-broadcasting funding flap is, however, about as far removed from sensible as one can get.
The most ludicrous passage involves charges of political bias:
Conservatives complain that PBS and NPR lean left in their political and news programs. But the PBS show that gets the most viewership is by far the deepest, most intelligent and mature such program on television: The News Hour. It is also the most evenhanded, so evenhanded that host Jim Lehrer is regularly accepted by both parties to moderate presidential debates. Morning Edition and All Things Considered, the key news programs on NPR, are also thorough and evenhanded – to the point the shows are sometimes accused of bending over backward to be fair to the right.
Americans would be wise to examine the basis of conservative charges of bias. PBS and NPR do regularly air programs that upset the ruling class, there’s no doubt about that. These programs regularly report on the plight of the poor, on political corruption, environmental degradation and corporate scandals. Do the American people really consider this left wing? Or, do they consider it the whole truth about their society, a truth that must be told if the United States is going to operate as a democracy of informed citizens?
Public broadcasting isn?t politically biased, it just puts on programs to ?upset the ruling class.? Uh, spouting quasi-Marxist phrases in defense of PBS is not going to help. And if NPR bends over backwards to be fair to conservatives, then I bend over backwards to be fair to left-leaning editorialists.
