aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Saturday, November 26, 2005
The Moyers Tomlinson debate
Remember Ken Tomlinson saying he’d debate Bill Moyers? From Q&A last summer:
LAMB: At the hearing that we covered recently, you were challenged to debate Bill Moyers. And you said yes.
TOMLINSON: I would be happy to debate Bill Moyers. [...]
LAMB: Will it be in a public forum?
TOMLINSON: Yes.
LAMB: Coverable by this network and others?
TOMLINSON: I assume so.
LAMB: And do you think it will be soon?
TOMLINSON: I think it will probably be in the fall, in September.
I forgot too. Reading this interview with Moyers in Broadcasting and Cable reminded me:
Did you get any direct pressure from Tomlinson or CPB to change the content of your show?
The people at PBS told me they were getting excruciating pressure because of our reporting, including threats to de-fund public television unless “Moyers is dealt with.” They never identified the source of that pressure.
We know now it was Tomlinson. [Tomlinson] even told some people [we have confirmed it with two people who were present] that “Moyers is a coward because he doesn’t want to talk to people who disagree with him.”
Hello? See the above list of all the conservatives who appeared on the show.
What happened to the debate idea between you two?
I asked him repeatedly. He refused. He didn’t even respond. But when all this started to unfold early last year, I asked three times to meet with the CPB board and try to find out what was going on.
I thought we could reason together and maybe agree on how to cooperate to protect Public Broadcasting’s independence. I mean, I not only read the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, I helped to create it. CPB’s job was to be a firewall between guys like them and the producers, journalists, and content of public broadcasting.
I thought at the time that I was dealing with people who cared about this institution. I didn’t realize they had gone over to the dark side.
UPDATE: NYTimes editorial, Public Broadcasting’s Enemy Within - “As chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kenneth Tomlinson proved to be a disastrous zealot...”
