They Killed Kenny (Well, Metaphorically)

Are you a little bit confused by the Kenneth Tomlinson story? Here's what happened, in brief: Roughly two years ago, Tomlinson was hired as chair of the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, which was created by Congress in 1967 to distribute federal money for public broadcasting. He soon began complaining that the programming on PBS and NPR was too liberal. He also said that it was the responsibility of CPB to bring about some ideological balance. Liberals, unsurprisingly, disagreed with Tomlinson, and they (and others) noted that CPB is supposed to be a nonpartisan entity that protects public broadcasting from the political influences. But Tomlinson didn't seem inclined to heed his critics: He recruited former Republican National Committee co-chair Patricia Harrison to become CPB's president and chief executive, and backed a conservative-leaning talk show called "The Journal Editorial Report," which he wanted PBS to carry in order to counter the liberal-leaning program "Now . . . With Bill Moyers."

A report released yesterday by the CPB's inspector general, Kenneth A. Konz, found that Tomlinson inappropriately used "political tests" to recruit Harrison, as evidenced in part by his communication with the White House in advance of her hire. It also found that Tomlinson acted improperly in steering "The Journal Editorial Report" onto the PBS schedule. In addition, the report found that Tomlinson threatened to withhold federal funding from PBS if it didn't "balance" its programming and that he made hires without the approval of the CPB board. Tomlinson resigned two weeks ago after the board received a private briefing on the contents of the report.

Tomlinson has said he was merely trying to "enforce a provision of the broadcasting act meant to ensure objectivity and balance in programming," as The New York Times puts it. But the report found that he repeatedly violated CPB statutes. It's unclear whether he violated federal law, however: According to the Times and The Wall Street Journal, he did so, but the Washington Post says only that he "may have violated federal law." Tomlinson, for his part, says the findings are "preconceived and unjustified" and adds that Konz chose "politics over good judgment."

Several interest groups are now calling on Harrison to resign, but she had vowed to stay on, and the CPB board just gave her a unanimous vote of confidence. It will be interesting to track if and how the fallout of Konz' report will impact her ability to do her job – not to mention how long she keeps it.

At least one Public Eyer thinks this story should be getting more play than it is. Part of the reason that it isn't is that it has been dragging on so long. My former colleague Paul McLeary has been covering the story for CJR Daily since the spring. He estimates he's done "10 or 11" posts on it, most of which were tied to new developments such as Tomlinson's hiring of ombudsmen, his battle with PBS CEO Pat Mitchell, his testifying before Congress, and the start of the investigation.

McLeary feels the coverage of the issue has been "pretty good," though he says he "would have liked to have seen more." "I don't know how interested the public is in general in the issue," he adds. He expects the story from this point forward to be tied into the Bush cronyism storyline "as a footnote."

As for how the story has been played out on the blogs, it's pretty much what you would expect. Liberal bloggers have been all over it, lambasting Tomlinson as a partisan hack, while righties argue that he's right to want more balance in public broadcasting. A search of Technorati reveals that, over the past 24 hours, it's been mostly a liberal victory dance, with the right side of the blogosphere largely ignoring the story. Sample comment: "While there are no criminal penalties for Tomlinson's unethical conduct, if there is any justice in the world, I sincerely hope that Tomlinson will be found working at an Arby's somewhere."