Great news for public broadcasting

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Chairman Ken Tomlinson has resigned. A CPB inspector general investigated "Tomlinson's attempts to add more conservative programming," and the board of directors has been reviewing the as-yet unreleased report.

But this was the real problem: "Tomlinson came under heavy fire for adding conservative shows to balance what he saw as liberal bias, and for hiring an outside consultant to gauge the bias in shows, particularly Now with Bill Moyers." In short, Tomlinson is yet another conservative hack. He was needlessly politicizing public broadcasting by claiming liberal bias and attempting to impose his own conservative bias through ideological programming.

As Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) put it, "[t]his is a welcome opportunity for the Bush Administration to appoint a replacement for Mr. Tomlinson who will be a defender of outstanding public affairs, educational, cultural as well as high quality children's programming".

Don't count on it. Tomlinson's resignation is great news, but his replacement might not be much better.

(I wonder what Michael Brown's up to. Maybe he needs a new job for which he's thoroughly unqualified.)