Good news: PBS has decided to act a bit more fair and balanced, and will air a new talking heads show starting in September, featuring the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal.
Each week, JOURNAL EDITORIAL REPORT will consider an array of timely topics in a fast-paced half-hour built around four regular segments and occasional special segments.The program leads off with a look at the story the editorial board considers the most important of the week, emphasizing the original reporting and analysis of the editorial board members. Next, "Briefing....and Opinion" will feature an in-depth taped piece from the field on a current issue of note, which will serve as a basis for a spirited discussion. This will be followed by "One on One," in which Gigot talks with individual writers, op-ed contributors or other newsmakers, getting "inside" the stories and issues that others aren't covering. Some weeks, this segment will alternate with "Cultural Divide," which will look at issues raised in movies, television, literature, and religion. The half-hour wraps up with "Tony and Tacky," which invites members of the editorial board to make their personal picks of the best and the worst of the week.
Leftie Eric Alterman, already concerned about the obviously right-wing nature of PBS, seems despondent.
Short of turning the broadcast day over to Rush Limbaugh or Richard Mellon Scaife, it's difficult to imagine a more calculated effort to undermine PBS's intended mission of providing alternative programming than this subsidy to a wealthy, conservative corporation to produce yet another right-wing cable chat show.Given the right's domination of television talk shows and its already strong representation on public broadcasting, the only imaginable explanation for the decision to put PBS resources in the hands of well-financed, well-distributed, unabashedly partisan and journalistically challenged ideologues can be naked political pressure. As we have seen over the past three decades, the relentless conservative campaign to "work the refs" works. If liberals are to retain their voice in the public discourse, they had better find a way to let the pooh-bahs of PBS know exactly what they think of decisions like this one.
Such retching only confirms how badly this antidote is needed. Hope to see it here in Houston, but the Sept. schedule is not yet published.
Posted by Alan at August 13, 2004 09:15 PM