Free Republic

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...

If you have kids, or if you ever were a kid, you know about the television show Sesame Street. It’s been around for more than 50 years and it’s been appropriately described as an American institution, with lovable characters, entertaining stories, and unique music. It was the first television show to base its content on educational goals and a curriculum, and for so many children (and their parents), it made learning fun. Indeed, if there’s one street that always felt safe for children, it was Sesame Street. And why not? It features a plethora of friendly puppets, an 8-foot tall...

PBS Kids decided to drop a bombshell on unsuspecting viewers. During the 22nd season of Arthur, the episode rolled out a sociopolitical shocker: Mr. Ratburn is gay. But the shock drops didn’t end there, PBS decided to push even further… Mr. Ratburn got married to his gay partner. The news has gone viral online following an article from TVLine.com, which recounts how the moment occurs, writing… "[…] the gang spots Mr. Ratburn having lunch with an uptight woman (voiced by special guest star Jane Lynch), who tells Mr. Ratburn that he’s “too soft” and needs to “toughen up.” They decide...

The documentary "RBG" is a look at perhaps the most unlikely rock star Washington has ever seen: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Tracing her roots, education and career, it's her early and continuing fight for gender equality that winds through the film. Jeffrey Brown talks with directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen. Read the Full Transcript John Yang: Finally tonight, she is largely known for issuing stinging dissents from the Supreme Court bench. But a new documentary, out today in select theaters, provides an intimate and rare look inside the life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Jeffrey Brown has...

Congressman Lamborn released the following statement following his introduction of two bills, H.R. 726 and H.R. 727, to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and National Public Radio (NPR): “Republicans and the new Administration need to demonstrate that we take our fiscal responsibility seriously. American taxpayers do not want their hard-earned dollars funding superfluous government programs just because that is the way things have always been done. That’s why I have reintroduced two pieces of legislation to permanently defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio. CPB received $445 million during Fiscal Year 2016, and this money...

Rupert Murdoch just bought National Geographic. Here’s the problem everybody should be talking about. The media was up in arms yesterday at news of Murdoch's high-profile acquisition. Here's what you should know. The news that National Geographic has now been placed in the hands of Rupert Murdoch prompted a predictable outcry, roughly akin to what happens in the movies when the clearly evil tycoon takes the orphans away. A bastion of popular science is now controlled by a very prominent climate change denier who, despite his company’s assurances of editorial integrity, has spent decades interfering with the independence of his...

It's a fact of American life that a good share of the electorate is , and even of President Obama. What's less certain are the reasons why. For some Democrats, the explanation is simple: race. In recent weeks, West Virginia Sen. , Mississippi Rep. and former Florida Gov. have all said racism is the driving force behind Republican resistance to the president. Republicans, unsurprisingly, say their disdain for Obama is based not on the color of his skin, but on the content of his policies. "If any white Democrat had pushed through a billion-dollar stimulus plan and a takeover of...

Bart Ehrman, prolific author, New Testament scholar and former evangelical Christian, says it took him eight years to research and complete his new book, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee. Yet, a group of fellow scholars responded in their book, How God Became Jesus, by claiming that the Christian-turned-agnostic's "sloppy" scholarship on Jesus' divinity leaves much to be desired. Ehrman, the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, says his research reveals that Jesus, a first century Galilean, never claimed to be God, and that it...

(CNSNews.com) - On the first day of the “shutdown” of the federal government, when members of the U.S. Senate were going to the well of their house to point out that the shutdown would prevent the National Institutes of Health from starting clinical trials for cancer patients and others facing possibly terminal illnesses, the administration was giving $445,000,000 to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, according to the Daily Treasury Statement. That means PBS NewsHour, National Public Radio and Sesame Street got a taxpayer subsidy during the shutdown, but not would-be cancer patients at the NIH. The $445 million the Treasury...

Peter Sagal, host of NPR's highly entertaining "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," is planning a new PBS special on the US Constitution. In an interview with Politico, Sagal explains that he will be using the show to "educate" Americans about our government's framing document . The tax-payer funded show, "Constitution USA with Peter Sagal," sounds harmless enough: … We talked to people who were basically living the Constitution whether they wanted to or not, as opposed to the usual array of pundits or activists who have opinions about it. But as Sagal reveals his personal views of the constitution, a...

Communist and Islamist Propaganda on Public Media U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs' Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, wants to know if it is true that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is funding the distribution of Al-Jazeera, which he calls the voice of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Moscow-funded Russia Today (RT) and CCTV, which he calls the official propaganda arm of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party. "Does the CPB use federal funds to broadcast foreign propaganda in the U.S., such as CCTV and RT?" Rep. Rohrabacher asks in a letter to...

The Obama campaign apparently is being run by a humor-deficient would-be Jon Stewart: On Tuesday, it launched an ill-advised attempt at snark in an advertisement featuring Big Bird. How bad was the ad? Even the yellow fellow himself was embarrassed, and Sesame Workshop, the multimillion-dollar enterprise with the $1 million–a–year president behind Sesame Street, asked that the ad be taken down. Even President Obama’s amen corner in the media was aghast: ABC News’ Terry Moran pronounced it the work of a campaign “in panic mode.” Somebody should remind Barack Obama that he is, for the moment, president of the United...

Put this another way. When your campaign strategy loses Matt Lauer, Chris Matthews Bob Shrum, and earns four Pinocchios from the Washington Post, where exactly does that leave you? In a fine, feathered mess, that’s where. Lauer interviewed Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs this morning on Today, and asked, “Is that the kind of political ad that a campaign releases when it feels that it has ideas and solutions on its side, or is that the kind of political ad a campaign releases when it simply wants to get attention?” As if on cue, Gibbs insists that Mitt Romney declared...

Subsidies: With the economy faltering and Middle East unrest rising, President Obama acts as though the biggest issue facing the country is Mitt Romney's alleged threat to "Sesame Street." We have an idea for him. According to a recent tally, Obama brought up either Big Bird or Elmo 13 times in speeches since last week's debate, in which Romney promised to end federal support for PBS and NPR. That compares with zero mentions of how he plans to revive the economy, and no references to Libya. And he's now running an ad featuring Big Bird. If Obama is going to...

RICHMOND – Gov. Bob McDonnell is clipping Big Bird's wings. McDonnell has used his line-item veto authority to cut state funding for public broadcasting, calling it “a smart, practical budgeting decision to make Virginia government smaller and more efficient and save taxpayer dollars.” McDonnell’s veto will reduce the funding that lawmakers had approved for educational programming and radio reading services by $424,000, or about 16 percent, in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

In the great state of Minnesota, we have something called the Legacy Amendment which increased our state sales tax to create a slush fund for all kinds of extraneous goodies related to "outdoor heritage, clean water, parks and trails, and arts and cultural heritage." The result has been increasingly odious lobbying efforts to claim a slice of that taxpayer pie. Legislators can't seem to give the money away fast enough. As the state wrestles with a $5 billion budget deficit, funds raised by the Legacy Amendment go to such essential items as paying a science-fiction writer $40,000 to speak to...

The local public radio station, WCVE, is in the midst of its spring fundraiser. As someone who tunes in most mornings, I kicked in some bucks for the good of the cause last week. And if you pay taxes in Virginia, you did, too. Gov. Bob McDonnell tried to have it otherwise. He sought repeatedly to slash state funding for public broadcasting, but was gainsaid by the General Assembly—which trimmed appropriations for public radio and TV by only 10 percent. During debate on the governor's budget amendments last Wednesday, Del. Jennifer McClellan, a Richmond Democrat, displayed an Elmo doll on...

If it feels as though Suze Orman and the cast of “Les Misérables” have taken over your local public television station, you’re not dreaming. The current pledge drive comes to an official end on March 20...and the baby boomer concerts, “Laugh-In” retrospective, doo-wop groups and self-help gurus will go on hiatus. But in a few short months, those programs and similar ones will be back. Since 2005, the average amount of time PBS member stations devote to on-air pledge drives has increased by 9 percent...Some stations now devote a full 10 weeks a year to the special shows. Driving the...

Is it time for Congress to defund public broadcasting? Maybe -- After seeing all those PBS games, toys and books, I wonder if they really need my money. No -- They offer programming that can't be found anywhere else in America. Yes -- From Elmo to Ken Burns, public broadcasting is a marketing machine. It doesn't need taxpayer support. Other (post a comment).

Dear Congress, I don’t ask for much. I live quietly, I take care of myself, I donate to charities, I work hard and save my money. I don’t expect to see a dime of the funds I have paid into Social Security and Medicare when I retire, because I know that money is already all gone. It’s okay, I’ll probably get by without going on the dole, even thought my 401(k) is not nearly what it used to be… But since you’re looking for ways to cut spending here and there, I hereby request three small cuts. Oh, I know...