US Broadcasting Agencies Under Investigation
Michael Hedges November 7, 2005
After meeting for three days at an undisclosed location the US Corporation for Public Broadcasting board accepted the resignation of former chairman and current board member Kenneth Y. Tomlinson Thursday night. This week Tomlinson will appear before a Congressional subcommittee investigating Arabic television channel Al-Hurra. Tomlinson currently chairs the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees all US government overseas media programs, including Voice of America and Al-Hurra television.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Inspector General Kenneth Konz has investigated for six months claims that Tomlinson and others acted inappropriately by hiring pro-Republican lobbyists without board approval and a consultant with questionable media experience to monitor television programs for “anti-Bush” bias. Two prominent Democrat US Senators prompted the investigation. Tomlinson often claimed his intention to correct “liberal bias” at CPB funded Public Broadcasting Service television (PBS) and National Public Broadcasting radio (NPR). The Inspector General’s report will be released publicly later in November. Tomlinson’s two year term as CPB chairman expired in September.
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When the BBC World Service announced plans for an Arabic language television channel there was no doubt it would succeed. The Beeb has been there before. And without that episode a dozen years ago, troubled though it was, neither Al-Jazeera nor Al-Arabiya would exist today.
Independent American public broadcaster NPR seeks Berlin radio license. And the US government isn’t happy.
The esteemed playwright Arthur Miller died at the end of a week that also claimed lives of journalists in Iraq and Somalia. The week also ended the career of CNNs head of international news.
A US State Department Inspector General‘s report is critical of the Arabic-language channel as failing to meet its mandate although it attracts a large audience in key Middle Eastern countries.
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Tomlinson’s troubles with US investigators are far from over, reported in Financial Times (FT) articles (November 4 and 6) all but ignored by US media watchers. The US Congressional subcommittee on oversight and investigations has called a hearing Thursday (November 10) about “irregularities” involving Al-Hurra television, funded by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). Tomlinson and Al-Hurra news director Mouafac Harb have been called to testify. The FT article also confirms that the US State Department’s Inspector General is investigating Al-Hurra, as it did Radio Sawa a year ago.
Both the CPB and BBG were designed to insulate both domestic and foreign US funded broadcasting from political influence. Tomlinson, a former Reader’s Digest editor, has led attempts to recast both as “fair and balanced,” conservative terminology for more conservative. PBS and NPR officials have for more than a decade fought constant battles with conservatives who have sought to put an ideological spin on every US government agency.
A leader in that effort is presidential advisor Karl Rove, currently under investigation for improprieties in disclosing the name of a CIA operative to journalists. Rove and Tomlinson served together on the Board for International Broadcasting, BBG's predecessor.
 Troubles with Al-Hurra television are similar, yet different. Al-Hurra and other US funded broadcasting efforts directed to the Middle East were effectively separated from the Voice of America (VOA) in a strategy to actually find an audience. A separate operation was organized, directed by radio consultant Bert Kleinman, to operate the Arabic services differently. This upset entrenched VOA regulars and a few conservative politicians who prefer seeing and hearing entrenched VOA regulars and a few conservative politicians on the outlets to cooking shows and pop music. Kleinman also announced his departure last week.
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