I searched the diaries and found no mention of this. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has chosen, "a former Republican Party co-chairman Thursday as its president and chief executive."
"Patricia S. Harrison, the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, was selected following three days of closed-door meetings by the corporation's board of directors."
Here's the AP article.
More below...
"Democratic lawmakers last week urged the CPB to put off choosing a new president, citing concerns about political interference by the corporation's chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson. A Republican, Tomlinson, has been critical of public affairs programming at PBS, alleging that it's too liberal."
The right wing power grab for public broadcasting is in full effect. Molly Ivens wrote about this earlier this week.
I used to give to NPR (which I realize isn't PBS) for years until their news became `neo-balanced'- telling both sides while not researching the truth. When I found out that Radio Free Europe's Kevin Klose had become their CEO/Presidentin 1998, I couldn't help but dust off the ol' tin foil hat from my younger days.
What can we do? I know many of you consider public broadcasting long lost, but even it it is, what can we do to help it back to true reporting? We aren't in power, and because of this we don't curry favor with the media. But how did this happen to my beloved NPR/PBS? Is there anything we can do about it without hurting local stations?
Seriously- this is something we need to be thinking about.