I can’t get behind that!
Remember how the director of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting spent thousands in CPB funding to push legislation and fund studies designed to undermine public broadcasting?
Well, it’s no secret that the Bush administration has difficulty getting its money’s worth. And as the latest illustration of this, we point you toward this summary of the report generated by Fred Mann after being paid by Tomlinson to track political bias on public television (thanks for the link, Mac).
It turns out that the Mann Report – which Tomlinson has been reluctant to pull out and wave around like the high-cost conservative banner that it was clearly intended to be – is a completely ridiculous mess of inaccuracies and typos.
It’s a document created by a man with no credentials to suggest that he’s in any way qualified to analyze media, and the report itself suggests that Mann is at best grossly uninformed and at worst functionally illiterate.
As part of the report, Mann labels guests on PBS talk shows as “L” for liberal, “C” for conservative, or “X” for – well, nobody’s quite certain what “X” was supposed to mean.
Henry Rollins, the former singer for the legendary hardcore-punk band Black Flag, was labeled conservative for stating, in Mann’s words, that “people who have problems with the war should support the troops.” Apparently, feeling sympathy for American servicemen and women is strictly “C.”
Let us take a moment to revel in Henry Rollins’ response to the Mann Report’s assertion that he’s a C.
Jane. I don’t know if I could be called a conservative seeing how I will get up extra early to tell anyone in front of me THAT BUSH IS A COWARD AND A LIAR AND THOSE WHO VOTED FOR HIM ARE PART OF A VERY BAD PROBLEM. THAT THE FOX NEWS CHANNEL IS A BUNCH OF SISSIES WHO CAN’T TAKE A PUNCH....If Bush’s idiotic television monitors are making reference to my 70 second appearance on Fox News talking about the USO, I did that because the USO asked me to and since I do a lot of work on their behalf because I support our troops, I did.
As if mislabeling Rollins weren’t enough, Mann didn’t just mistake well-known liberals for conservatives.
Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, garnered his “L” after speaking glowingly of Ronald Reagan in a discussion with Tavis Smiley. Hagel is, of course, that comsymp who earned a 100 percent rating from the Christian Coalition last year. Another Rehm guest, Washington Post reporter Robin Wright, earned her “L” by articulating an analytical point Mann apparently had not heard expressed before. “Ms. Wright’s viewpoint was that U.S. intelligence was geared to fight the Cold War and did not adapt to the new threat of terrorism,” Mann writes, describing why he put the “L” word beside her name. For investigating three of Tom DeLay’s associates for illegal fundraising in Travis County, Texas, District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who was interviewed on NOW, was dubbed “anti-DeLay.”
And actor Jamie Foxx was labeled with a lowercase “x.” After discussing the difficulties Ray Charles had to overcome in his career.
So, we have taxpayer money that could have been spent on the quality programming that it was earmarked for that instead went to failed legislation and an unreadable, inaccurate, and amazingly off-topic report by an un-credentialed “expert” who apparently can’t be found now.
Fiscal responsibility what?
July 11th, 2005 at 7:12 pm
“X” means “I was going to sign this, but I can’t spell my name.”