Posted on 12/16/2005 9:46:30 PM PST by Fido969
No Rove influence seen in US public TV boss hiring Tue Dec 13, 6:43 PM ET
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.
He declined to release the information because of concerns about violating individual privacy rights and compromising CPB business interests, according to his December 9 letter to Common Cause, Center for Digital Democracy, and Free Press.
"I will state that this correspondence contained no indications that either Mr. Rove or any other White House personnel made any attempt to influence programing decisions or the hiring of the President/CEO," Konz said in the letter.
Konz did tell the Washington Post last month in an interview that Tomlinson exchanged e-mails with Rove and he "did ask for feedback on some of the candidates."
Konz was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.
The federal law that governs U.S. public broadcasting bars "political tests" for personnel decisions and is meant to shield public broadcasting from political interference.
"Surely the American people have the good sense to be able to read these e-mails and come to their own conclusions about whether Mr. Rove and Mr. Tomlinson behaved ethically and appropriately," Common Cause President Chellie Pingree said in a statement.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a federally funded nonprofit corporation and the largest single source of money for U.S. public television and radio programing, including PBS and National Public Radio. It is governed by a presidentially appointed board.
He controls EVERYTHING!
Anyway, the libs are fighting hard behind the scenes on this one. Jubilant over ousting Tomlinson, they now have their sights set on Konz.
They do NOT want to have their control of PBS challenged.
I think they might have communicated through Scooter Libby.
I think that these IQ deficient liberals have built Karl Rove up so much in their minds and in their rhetoric that they now believe the very things that they themselves made up in the first place.
That's all one needs to know. No foul = no penalty.
they need to play this up big time... Rove as this magical political wizard of oz that is the ultimate" hidden hairy hand of the white man" controling everything. They should do short video vingetts showing him behind a hurricane machine, working in his cluttered garage on a machine that controls the minds of minority voters.... and just keep making these and sending them out via the internet until the media/dems look like the paranoid fools they are.
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