Letter Of The Day

we got two winners today. both deal with the PBS bias issue.

Cal Thomas, in his June 26 column, "Bias Runs Deep at PBS," attempted to further perpetuate his weakly substantiated assertion that PBS and NPR slant "too far to the left and need to be brought into balance." He cited one program, "NOW." Thomas accused the "lefties" of avoiding the bias debate and said that they "have taken to smearing" the current PBS chairman, Kenneth Tomlinson. Thomas then proceeded to do the very thing that he accused the lefties of doing, by attacking PBS journalist Bill Moyers.

I decided to survey some of the programming presented on both PBS and NPR. Later that very morning, I watched and listened to the program "The McLaughlin Group." Moderator John McLaughlin (former Washington political reporter and columnist for the National Review) facilitated a debate over many of the current political problems facing our nation. Opinions from the left, right and center were presented. Next, I tuned into the local program "Iowa Press," where Register columnist David Yepsen (a leftie for sure) interviewed Republican Sen. Jeff Lamberti over many of the issues confronting the Iowa political scene. Finally, on Monday afternoon on my drive home from work, I listened to the NPR news-radio program "All Things Considered," which included a three-minute radio segment titled "This I believe." The segment highlights an author-written piece that is read over the air. On that particular afternoon, conservative Newt Gingrich shared his personal statement on a deeply held belief.

I decided that there definitely is a bias and hidden agenda running deep. However, it's not one to be found at PBS. Rather, it predominates the rhetoric of Cal Thomas and other detractors of PBS and NPR.
-Dennis E. Thompson,
Ankeny.

AND

It seems that Cal Thomas and other conservatives are using the statistic that only four of 19 guests on Bill Moyer's "NOW" were for the Iraq war. Considering President Bush's sub-50 percent approval ratings, did it ever occur to them that perhaps only four of 19 people in the country are actually for the war anyway?

If so, then "NOW" was "fair and balanced," and to put more pro-war guests on the show would have indeed shown bias.
-Eric McLuen,
Des Moines.

--attribution