THE POLITIZATION OF PUBLIC BROADCASTING?

For many years, public radio and television has been a source for all points of view can be heard: liberal, conservative, moderate, from Now to The McLaughlin Group and William F. Buckley's Firing Line. But at the same time, conservative extremists have often disdained the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio as having a liberal bias, the same thing they say about most other media outlets (except, possibly, the Washington Times and Fox News Channel).

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was formed as an non-political agency to provide funding for all types of programming on PBS and NPR. Now that independence is severely threatened, as the actions of CPB Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson (former Voice of America head during the Reagan administration) raise serious questions that he may be pushing a pro-Bush/pro-DeLay/pro-Republican agenda

The St. Petersburg Times' editorial today looks at the issue, and notes that public broadcasting remains a very important source of varied programming for many Americans.