The relative silence of the Register's news and editorial columns on the politicization of public broadcasting is deafening and disheartening.
The Washington Post and the New York Times reported on the national leadership of the Iowa Public Television Board of Directors in opposing a move by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to place politics ahead of principle.
But Register news columns made no mention of the role of IPTV in what turned out to be a losing fight. Columnist Rekha Basu mentioned it in passing toward the end of her June 17 column on proposed budget cuts for "Big Bird."
Cartoonist Brian Duffy suggested in his June 28 cartoon that the Public Broadcasting System should be renamed GOPBS. The June 26 Potomac Fever column by Jane Norman reported on principled statements by U.S. Rep. James Leach in defense of PBS.
But Register readers had little context for such commentary unless they read about the leadership of IPTV in the Post or the Times. (Local television news was clueless.)
Much attention has been placed on budget cuts for public broadcasting.
Money can be replaced. You can play catch-up when it comes to budgets. But the integrity of public broadcasting has been damaged by the CPB in naming a political operative to - as Duffy suggests - turn PBS into GOPBS.
-Herb Strentz,
chair, IPTV Advisory Committee on Journalistic and Editorial Integrity,
Urbandale.
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