The New York Times considers it big news that Ken Tomlinson of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is pressing PBS about “alleged liberal bias” in its programming. (This is like saying there is “alleged conservative bias” on the Rush Limbaugh show.) What does this really say? It says it’s somehow highly unusual for CPB to urge PBS to seek balance in its programming, even though it’s written right into the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 and rewritten into the law in 1992. The Times demonstrates its own liberal bias by equating efforts to seek balance with “chilling journalistic efforts.”
The funniest part of the story is when the Times tries to suggest Bill Moyers has a fairer show than Paul Gigot’s. “Public television executives noted that Mr. Gigot’s show by design features the members of the conservative editorial board of The Wall Street Journal, while Mr. Moyers’s guests included many conservatives, like Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition; Richard Viguerie, a conservative political strategist; and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.”
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A Times reader might guess that Moyers has conservative guests on weekly, instead of once in a blue moon. The better way to measure is to compare the WSJ show to “Washington Week,” since it never has on conservative reporters to sit with Gwen Ifill. Then compare Moyers to Tucker Carlson. Which one was more obviously shrill, denouncing politicians for “feeding on the corpse of war”? Then remember this: Tucker Carlson had a show for a year. Bill Moyers has built his multimillion-dollar personal fortune through PBS for decades.