On the Future of Public Media/News

According to the Seattle Times, National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB) and their most recent controversy over the "secret consultant's report", is an overtly political one:

[A] consultant, Frederick Mann, was secretly hired last year by Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the agency that disburses about $400 million in federal tax money to public broadcasters. In recent months, Tomlinson has criticized National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service for an allegedly liberal bias and has pushed PBS to add programs with a more conservative tone.

There have been counter-accusations that Mr. Mann's report itself was politically motivated and biased.

Kenneth Tomlinson is the Chairman of CPB and a central figure in this controversy. He was nominated in 2000 by President Bill Clinton to become a member of the CPB, and then in 2003 was named chairman by President George W. Bush. He is a controversial figure because of his campaign to fight a perceived liberal bias in public media, at PBS and NPR. Interestingly, he was born in Galax, Virginia.

I believe the implication that publicly-funded news could ever be "bias free" is fallacious. Could it be less "left-leaning"? Maybe. Who or what is going to define and identify that bias? Who or what is going to quantify and alter that bias on an ongoing basis? Is it the Bush Administration? If so, what happens when a different executive team occupies the White House? Will they need and want to reshape public media to their political tastes? Should there be public funding of media in any form? Why and why not?

I'll go on the record as saying liberal bias or not, PBS and NPR provide a better and more thorough and thoughtful journalistic product than any for-profit, private media outlet of which I am aware, including the Big Three, CNN, FOXNEWS, MSNBC, CNBC, etc.

Discuss, people!