Public Broadcasting Service

:PBS redirects here; for alternate uses see PBS (disambiguation).

Criticism

PBS has been the subject of some controversy.

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• The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 http://www.cpb.org/aboutpb/act/text.html required a "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature." It also prohibited the federal government from interfering or controlling what is broadcast. This set up an obvious tension where the government that created the CPB would not be able to do anything about a perceived failure to meet it?s obligation for objectivity and balance without interfering in some way.
• At a more basic and problematic level is how and who should determine what constitutes objectivity and balance when there are massive disagreements over what that would be. There seems to be no consensus or even attempts at forming a consensus to resolve this dilemma.
• Some conservatives perceive it to have a liberal bias and criticize its tax-based revenue and have periodically but unsuccessfully attempted to discontinue funding of CPB. Although state and federal sources account for a minority percentage of public television funding, the system remains vulnerable to political pressure. Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in November 2004 in Baltimore, told PBS officials, "They should make sure their programming better reflected the Republican mandate." Tomlinson later said that his comment was in jest and that he could not imagine how remarks at a fun occasion were taken the wrong way. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/arts/television/02public.html?pagewanted=3&ei=5094&en=1085de148e09623c&hp&ex=1115092800&partner=homepage
• Certain on the left dislike how much of its funding comes from corporate sponsorships and some are uncomfortable with shows such as Wall $treet Week which they see as promoting a corporate outlook without any corresponding series featuring opposing views from labor unions. For example, one of PBS' documentaries, Commanding Heights, strongly supports globalization while painting labor unions as socialist organizations.
• Some of its documentaries on Islam and the Arab world, such as Empire of Faith, are attacked as either fawning or factually challenged.
• Individual programs, particularly those dealing with the subject of homosexuality, have been the targets of organized campaigns by those with opposing views including United States Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.
• It was founded to provide diversity in programming at a time when all television was broadcast (as opposed to today's coaxial cable or satellite transmission methods) and most communities received only three or four signals. Today most households subscribe to cable TV or have satellite dishes that receive tens or hundreds of signals, including varied educational and children's programs. However, public television proponents insist that the service be intended to provide universal access, particularly to poor and rural viewers. It is also argued that many cable and satellite productions are of lower quality.
• Most stations solicit individual donations by methods including pledge drives or telethons which can disrupt regularly scheduled programming. Some viewers find this a source of annoyance since they replace the normal programs with specials aimed at a wider audience.
• Kenneth Tomlinson, who took over in 2003, began his tenure by asking for Karl Rove's assistance in overturning a regulation that half the CPB board have practical experience in radio or television. Later he appointed an outside consultant to monitor the regular PBS program NOW with Bill Moyers. Told that the show had "liberal" leanings, Moyers eventually resigned after more than three decades as a PBS regular, saying Tomlinson had mounted a "vendetta" against him. Subsequently, PBS made room for conservative commentator Tucker Carlson (now of MSNBC, a former co-host of CNN's Crossfire), and a show with Paul Gigot, an editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page.