Ken Tomlinson,
By on Nov 4th, 2005 at 12:40 am
Ken Tomlinson,
the staunchly conservative head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has resigned.
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Good news. Now we’ll see who fills his shoes and how the rest of the “cleaning house” process goes.
November 4th, 2005 at 1:02 amAmen! I’ve been a fan of Public TV and radio for years. Every Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm, I listen to shows like Car Talk, What Ya’ Know and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me on public radio.
Public Broadcasting is supported by US: The American Public, not a bunch of whiny pundits who think too much about the so-called “liberal bias” and less about the good quality programs they put out. It’s the only format where I don’t have to hear names such as Paris Hilton, Kevin (I’m a male whore) Federline or Nancy Disgrace.
We, who support Public Broadcasting, should let CPB know what we want and why there should be no interference by a P.R. loving, slick graphics craving, Faux News-watching windbag.
November 4th, 2005 at 1:10 amIt’s good that the neocon knows he’s a has-been.
The day the Antique Road Show becomes corrupt is when I say there is no hope.
November 4th, 2005 at 1:50 amWho Are We?…
We?…. Are Who.
You Are Me!…
Me!…Are You.
I and You!…
You!… and I.
Man of Sounds!…
Sounds!… Of Man.
Man Of Lights!..
Lights!… Of Man.
–AckSyn JAcKSyn
Synthesis, Anti-Synthesis, Synthesis, ACK’d
November 4th, 2005 at 2:00 amHey all,
I hope this is good news, but I thought that the GOP had designs on further inculcating NPR, and that this guy’s replacement is supposed to be worse??
What shocked me a few months ago, and made me first consider that BushCo was fiddling with NPR, is that Frank Luntz’s environmental Orwellian spin had only come out in 2002, and that is bullshit!! It came out in 1994, and if you do a Google search, you can look at the original draft, weird type-set and all!!
Just my 2 cents…bigger things to worry about than another media outlet getting GOP-pized!!
S
November 4th, 2005 at 3:03 amEliminate Republican Scum. It’s Dangerous To Our Health.
November 4th, 2005 at 4:28 amGood news. This guy was so retarded he couldn’t even say “Liberal advocacy journalism” without spit flying all over the place.
November 4th, 2005 at 8:20 amGood Morning All!!! I don’t understand why the Republican want to cut funding for the PBC. There are a variety of shows for all american people. although they could put more shows on Sewing and Quilting. The PBC TV and Radio station have fund raising a few times a year. I like to listen to the radio because they also have a variety of topic they discuss.
I guess the Religious Nuts want everything to be based on Religion.
I like to know who on the Dems voted for this.
November 4th, 2005 at 8:27 amI heard that Buster was planning an expose’ on Tomlinson entitled “Postcards from the edge, Buster visits the CPB Executive Suite.”
Scared him off that pesky wabbit!
New on EWM: Kevin Bacon to play Libby in upcoming “Six Degrees of Scooterâ€
It’s ‘Dumb and Dumber’ meets ‘All the President’s Men.’
November 4th, 2005 at 8:59 amMaybe they should hire Michael Moore to replace him. Here’s the latest on what he’s up to.
Michael Moore Owned Halliburton, Defense Stocks
Jim Meyers
Friday, Nov. 4, 2005
Filmmaker Michael Moore has made a career out of trashing corporations and said he doesn’t own any stocks due to moral principle.
How then did author Peter Schweizer uncover IRS documents showing that Moore’s very own foundation has bought stocks in some of America’s largest corporations – including Halliburton, other defense contractors and some of the same companies he has attacked?
In his blockbuster new book “Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy,” Hoover Fellow Schweizer reveals the glaring contradictions between the public stances and real-life behavior of prominent liberals including Al Franken, Ralph Nader, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.
But he reserves some of his sharpest barbs for Moore.
In his first documentary “Roger & Me,” Moore skewered General Motors, Schweizer points out.
In “The Big One,” he went after Nike and PayDay candy bars.
“Bowling for Columbine” was an attack on the American gun industry.
Oil companies played a major role in “Fahrenheit 911.”
His upcoming film “Sicko” pillories drug companies and HMOs.
On his television shows “TV Nation” and “The Awful Truth,” he criticized HMOs and defense contractors.
He once said that major defense contractor Halliburton was run by a bunch of “thugs,” and suggested that for every American killed in the Iraq war, “I would like Halliburton to slay one mid-level executive.”
Publicly, Moore has claimed he wants no part of these companies and won’t own stock.
In his book “Stupid White Men,” he wrote: “I don’t own a single share of stock.”
He repeated the claim in a 1997 letter to the online magazine Salon, saying: “I don’t own any stock.”
Privately, however, he tells the IRS a different story, Schweizer discloses in his book.
The year that Moore claimed in “Stupid White Men” that he didn’t own any stock, he told the IRS that a foundation totally controlled by Moore and his wife had more than $280,000 in corporate stock and nearly $100,000 in corporate bonds.
Over the past five years, Moore’s holdings have “included such evil pharmaceutical and medical companies as Pfizer, Merck, Genzyme, Elan PLC, Eli Lilly, Becton Dickinson and Boston Scientific,” writes Schweizer, whose earlier works include “The Bushes” and “Reagan’s War.”
“Moore’s supposedly nonexistent portfolio also includes big bad energy giants like Sunoco, Noble Energy, Schlumberger, Williams Companies, Transocean Sedco Forex and Anadarko, all firms that ‘deplete irreplaceable fossil fuels in the name of profit’ as he put it in ‘Dude, Where’s My Country?’
“And in perhaps the ultimate irony, he also has owned shares in Halliburton. According to IRS filings, Moore sold Halliburton for a 15 percent profit and bought shares in Noble, Ford, General Electric (another defense contractor), AOL Time Warner (evil corporate media) and McDonald’s.
“Also on Moore’s investment menu: defense contractors Honeywell, Boeing and Loral.”
Does Moore share the stock proceeds of his “foundation” with charitable causes, you might ask?
Schweizer found that “for a man who by 2002 had a net worth in eight figures, he gave away a modest $36,000 through the foundation, much of it to his friends in the film business or tony cultural organizations that later provided him with venues to promote his books and film.” Moore’s hypocrisy doesn’t end with his financial holdings.
He has criticized the journalism industry and Hollywood for their lack of African-Americans in prominent positions, and in 1998 he said he personally wanted to hire minorities “who come from the working class.”
In “Stupid White Men,” he proclaimed his plans to “hire only black people.” But when Schweizer checked the senior credits for Moore’s latest film “Fahrenheit 911,” he found that of the movie’s 14 producers, three editors, production manager and production coordinator, all 19 were white. So were all three cameramen and the two people who did the original music.
On “Bowling for Columbine,” 13 of the 14 producers were white, as were the two executives in charge of production, the cameramen, the film editor and the music composer.
His show “TV Nation” had 13 producers, four film editors and 10 writers – but not a single African-American among them. And as for Moore’s insistence on portraying himself as “working class” and an “average Joe,” Schweizer recounts this anecdote:
“When Moore flew to London to visit people at the BBC or promote a film, he took the Concorde and stayed at the Ritz. But he also allegedly booked a room at a cheap hotel down the street where he could meet with journalists and pose as a ‘man of humble circumstances.’” That’s hypocrisy with a capital H!
November 4th, 2005 at 9:30 amHooray! As a longtime subscriber, I wrote to them saying no more donations from me until Tomlinson is gone. They replied with a personal note, but there must have been thousands who also wrote and called.
November 4th, 2005 at 9:38 amUnfortunately, he remains on the Board of Governors, where he can still wreak havoc, but this remains a victory for the public.
Wow, the wackos, formerly known as trolls, sure seem to spend a lot of time with the progressive movement. Maybe they should spend more time trying to clean up their mess. Or better yet, enlist.
It’s a strange person who likes to go back and forth between Fox News and Michael Moore. Wackos indeed. I like their new label; thanks Delay.
November 4th, 2005 at 9:41 amTell me again why our government should be spending any of our money on broadcasting? There was a time when it was necessary, but now with 200 channels available, why do we need this waste? Aren’t the Discovery Channel, Noggin, The Travel Channel etc. enough? Time to pull the plug on this one, unless they can operate with 100% private donations.
November 4th, 2005 at 9:43 amtrolls, trolls everywhere a troll
November 4th, 2005 at 9:49 amblocking up the useful comments
boring my mind….
Why is it our job to educate the trolls, er, wackos?
November 4th, 2005 at 10:00 amP&P,
I do not need an education from you. I just want an answer to my question.
November 4th, 2005 at 10:01 amWe need public brodcasting for one reason: ‘To keep corperate america out of the first amendment’ Frontline is the best,truthful program ever. Slowly they cut funds so now PBS has to have commericals, and beg for money. This is wrong. Republicans are ‘control freaks’ and can’t stand it when anything is ‘out of their control’. Free PBS, and ‘hands off’ total freedom of the the press and speach I say.
November 4th, 2005 at 10:10 amBack on topic, it is amazing how GOP
November 4th, 2005 at 10:11 amcorruption saturates everything.
Ken could have played his role somewhat
straight and still slanted CBC to the right,
but he severely overplayed his hand.
The slash and burn mentality exposes
their ideological myopia and makes them unable
to manage anything. Very disfunctional being
so driven by hate.
Randy you aren’t worth our time. You’re irrelevant.
#7 – borders on trolldom. Why is it that we have these closet trolls telling us we shouldn’t fight this battle cause it isn’t important enought….BULLSHIT!!! Each and Every battle is important. It’s gonna be the death of 1000 cuts that ends up getting the “silent majority” of this country interested enough to start taking part in it’s government again.
Stop the trolls, they don’t care about America.
November 4th, 2005 at 10:28 amKen Tomlinson, the staunchly conservative head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has resigned.
Good Riddance.
November 4th, 2005 at 10:30 amLook wacko, don’t play stupid games, we have business to attend to. You obviously have ample time to go to websites to which you totally disagree in philosophies with and try to provoke others into arguing with you because you find this tactic fun, but we really find you ridiculous. You are but a gnat here.
Don’t come here with your wacko BS and expect anyone to treat you with anything other than the distain you deserve. We find your waste of time loathsome. You obviously have no understanding of compassion and we have little in common with your type. Your “message” is redundant and obsurd and getting you nowhere. Until you learn how to relate to others in an intelligent fashion, you are marginalized here. Don’t expect “answers” that you can’t understand and, come on man, you really don’t want. You want us to reply so you can type frantically all of your talking points, but for the life of me, I don’t know why. Are you a GOP missionary spreading their lies? Aren’t you always right with God on your side? You don’t need us because you are righteous, right? Just know that you are correct in everything you do because you are following Jesus’ teachings, right? What do you need us for?
Again, you don’t want anything but to argue. Your ego is becomming so frail that you come here, of all places, to spew those last vestiges of your “message.” Look wacko, you’re tired and until you look deep inside yourself and your choices, you will never understand others and why they do things JUST FOR THE SOLE REASON OF HUMANITY.
No answers for you until you grow up.
November 4th, 2005 at 10:30 amThen proceed to buy gas, get your car repaired and buy conveneicne items at another brand gasoline station.
“Conveneicne” items? I think we would have to go to France to buy those.
“John,” if you insist on spamming the same off-topic garbage into every thread, the least you could do is spell-check it first.
Oh, and “a lot” is two words.
November 4th, 2005 at 10:45 amPBS is exactly what we need MORE of — an environment so toxic to conservativism that the Opertives of Ignorance are driven shrieking into the night.
More and more Americans are rejecting Bush-brand conservatism for the anti-American crock it is.
November 4th, 2005 at 11:00 am“Aren’t the Discovery Channel, Noggin, The Travel Channel etc. enough? Time to pull the plug on this one, unless they can operate with 100% private donations.”
You obviously do not know what quality television is by the examples you set forth. Remember when Discovery channel actually had intersting programs on? These days all they show are popular culture shows about motorcycles and when buildings explodes, etc, rather than documnetaries on scientific and social issues. THATS what happens when you privatize a channel, you get only what attracts the largest audience and with that you end up getting lower quality programs to watch.
You republicans are all high and mighty on morales and all low and weak on intellectual thought. If you had it your way, this whole country would mirror the poorest and least educated in the south. Can you imagine if this whole country was just one big Kansas?? We would be the laughing stock of the universe.
You can’t compare any other private channel out there to PBS. You just can’t! It’s actually one channel where we are not exposed to people like Britney Spears videos or Michael Jacksons court trials (Hint: Fox news channel). But it is one place where we are exposed to serious and intellectual thought with programs such as Frontline, Nature, and NOVA. And it’s a channel that is accessible to all people, not just a select few who can afford cable subscriptions! If you greedy bastard republicans had it your way, you would have people pay for this kind of programing.
Go to hell you evil bastards!!
November 4th, 2005 at 11:04 amP&P, don’t bother with Randy, he acknowledged that he’s a troll, er, wacko at #18. ‘nuf said.
November 4th, 2005 at 11:15 amMost anything OTHER than public radio is commercialized, bought and paid for, and is designed to appeal to the lowest common demoninator. Which happens to usually be wackos. Yeah, I’m really going to get quality news coverage on DOG the Bounty Hunter.
November 4th, 2005 at 11:19 amPBS is for people who cann’t afford cable TV. The PBS
November 4th, 2005 at 11:28 amis also funded by the people that watch these stations.
PBS is for Americans who tire of reality shows, Paris Hilton, people who appear naked at 8pm and anyone who tires of hearing the latest on Lindsay Lohan or Ashlee Simpson.
Randy,
November 4th, 2005 at 11:38 amIf you like anything that the PBS folks try to get away from, then that’s your business, but let’s remember. You probably owe PBS for letting Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers for teaching you your ABC’s
Randy, you’ve forgotten your Republican free-market ideals. You said “Tell me again why our government should be spending any of our money on broadcasting? There was a time when it was necessary, but now with 200 channels available, why do we need this waste?”
Yo dude, how could there ever have been a time when it was necessary? There have always been private channels, wouldn’t a government-helped channel have been a waste with even 1 private channel available? If it was ever necessary, why is it not now?
November 4th, 2005 at 11:56 amEven though this guy is gone, there are others in the CPB who will continue to push the Konservative Agenda. The battle is far from over.
As someone on this site has nicely pointed out, there’s a HUGE difference between opinion and the truth. PBS at times came close to telling the truth. We need more truth and less opinion.
Opinion is what has gotten the Repugs into trouble. And they’re too stupid to realize it.
November 4th, 2005 at 12:45 pm#19, WD That may also be one of the reasons they want to limit the Internet — they can’t control it.
November 4th, 2005 at 2:31 pmFrom the NYT:
November 4th, 2005 at 10:40 pmKenneth Y. Tomlinson, the head of the federal agency that oversees most government broadcasts to foreign countries, including the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, is the subject of an inquiry into accusations of misuse of federal money and the use of phantom or unqualified employees…..
In recent weeks, State Department investigators have seized records from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. They have shared some material with the CPB inspector-general, including e-mail traffic between Tomlinson and senior White House officials, including Karl Rove.
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