No Rove influence seen in US public TV boss hiring

Dec 13, 2005

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's inspector general found no evidence in correspondence that White House adviser Karl Rove or other White House officials tried to influence the hiring of the group's new leader, according to a letter released on Tuesday.

CPB Inspector General Kenneth Konz denied a request by three watchdog groups to release documents and e-mails related to a report that found former CPB Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson was motivated by politics when he hired a new president and chief executive officer.

In June, the CPB hired as its president and CEO Patricia Harrison, who previously co-chaired the Republican National Committee.

Konz told Reuters last month that Tomlinson e-mailed with Rove and his staff mostly about attempts to balance a program seen as liberal with a conservative show. Rove responded with congratulatory replies that were "very short, very cryptic," Konz said.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-12-13T234250Z_01_SPI385297_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-CPB-ROVE.xml


So CPB investigated themselves and everything is just peachy. Nothing to see here. Move along now.

I'm fairly sure (I'll check) that NPR had a report a few weeks ago that said the opposite of this.

This sounds like the Fox is guarding the Hen House.

Here's the Report from NPR.org



* The Full CPB Report(Requires Adobe Acrobat)
* Summary of the Report(Requires Adobe Acrobat)

Report Faults Ex-CPB Chair Tomlinson on Ethics

The CPB's Report on Tomlinson

NPR.org, November 15, 2005 · Former Corporation for Public Broadcasting chairman Kenneth Tomlinson violated his office's code of ethics as he sought to bring political change to the organization, according to the agency's internal investigation.

Inspector General Kenneth Konz's report confirms that Tomlinson applied a political test in pushing for the hiring of a new president and chief executive to lead the CPB. Tomlinson vigorously promoted Patricia Harrison, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, for the dual posts earlier this year. The full, Republican-dominated CPB board successfully demanded a formal search –- but ended up picking Harrison anyway

Tomlinson, a Republican, ended his controversial tenure when he resigned from the CPB board on Nov. 3.

The report also faulted Tomlinson for acting without the CPB board's knowledge or approval when he commissioned intensive monitoring of public radio and television shows such as The Diane Rehm Show and Now with Bill Moyers. Outside consultants were hired to perform the reviews, in which the political views of guests -- independent, liberal or conservative -- were tabulated.

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5013575>
(more at link above)

besides which I stopped watching t.v. about 3 years ago.