Gullible Americans already sedated with the Republican witches brew of "moral values" are being indoctrinated about the evils of "liberal" programs emanating from public broadcasting outlets.
The new effort by the Bush administration to police National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service against "liberal" content is a lamentable ruse.
The ugly truth is this effort is designed to eliminate content and personnel that don't heel to dicta of the Bush administration, which is indifferent to the aesthetics of liberal vs. conservative philosophies. It wants only to implant a permanent authoritarian state in which legislative, executive and judicial powers are firmly in its hands.
Control of the airwaves is next in purging the American mind of free thought and creating intellectual obedience to one-party thought. (Red State school boards are apace dictating textbook content that conforms to Republican precepts of science and history, a more genteel strategy than simply burning books not aligned with the right wing.)
A team of "ombudsmen" responsible to Republican masters, not the public, will emasculate the independence of NPR and PBS and transform them into the National Propaganda Radio and Propaganda Broadcasting System.
Think not? Then explain the White House hiring of an oil industry lobbyist to water down scientific papers on global warming and this week's discovery that a Justice Department lawyer whose private law firm represented tobacco had watered down a $130 billion damage settlement with tobacco companies to a paltry $10 billion.
Americans need good reporting, not propaganda. NPR and PBS should not be shackled by ideologues.
