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Washington, DC - Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), chairman of the Future of American Media (FAM) Caucus, Congresswoman Diane Watson (D-CA), a founding member of the FAM Caucus, and other FAM Caucus members today urged House passage of the Hinchey-Watson amendment to the Fiscal Year 2006 Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations bill that would bar Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson from interfering with the content of public television and radio stations across the country. The amendment comes in response to the actions of Tomlinson, who has taken the agency in a radical direction, dictating what content is allowable on public broadcast stations across the country that receive critical funding from CPB for their operations.
"The United States is already suffering from a lack of independent voices in the media. Public broadcasting remains one of the last outlets available that offer high-quality, unbiased, independent reporting, which is why we must ensure its independence from political tampering," Hinchey said. "It's a shame that it has even come to this, but the actions of Kenneth Tomlinson demand that this amendment be brought before the House. At the rate Tomlinson is going, it's only a matter of time before he changes PBS's name to FOX 2 and starts forcing Big Bird and Elmo to talk about the merits of the war in Iraq. We must have independent public broadcasting that reports the facts and holds both Democrats and Republicans accountable for their actions."
Said Watson, "Mr. Tomlinson has revealed his personal crusade to discredit and destroy public broadcasting. I am dismayed by the duplicity of Mr. Tomlinson and his brazen partisan agenda as Chairman of the CPB Board. Our amendment would simply ensure that no one -- not Mr. Tomlinson, not anyone over at the White House, would be allowed to continue politicizing public broadcasting."
Congress established the CPB in 1967 to "encourage the development of public radio and television broadcasting" and to "afford (public broadcasting) maximum protection from extraneous interference and control." Under the direction of Tomlinson, however, the CPB has turned this directive on its head and has been engaging in a deliberate campaign to politicize public broadcasting.
Recent news reports document Tomlinson's campaign. Some of his actions include: contracting with a consultant to monitor the "political content" of the "Now with Bill Moyers" program based on "anti-Bush," "anti-business" and "anti-Tom DeLay" criteria; hiring two lobbyists without the knowledge of the CPB board; hiring a White House official as a "special adviser" to design and oversee CPB's two ombudsmen positions, and; attempting to hire a political activist as the next president of CPB. Just this week, we learned of e-mails between Tomlinson, and other CPB officials that show Tomlinson has been working to advance the desires of the White House.
The Hinchey-Watson amendment would reinforce the existing statutory prohibition against Mr. Tomlinson, who also serves as Chairman of the Broadcasting Board Governors, from exercising any direction, supervision, or control over the content or distribution of public broadcasting. It would also reaffirm the long-standing policy that public broadcasting must be free from outside interference.
The FAM Caucus is composed of House Members who believe in an accountable, diverse, fair, and independent media. The Caucus, which currently has 20 Members, is open to Members of both parties and it neither supports nor opposes any particular industry stakeholder. The FAM Caucus' goal is to educate Members and staff about media issues before Congress and to ensure that all parties - especially the American public - have a chance to participate in the vital debate over media policy. |
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