Ombudsman's Mailbag
Ken A. Bode
March 31, 2009
In this posting I will explain where I get my information, how I hear from viewers and listeners of public broadcasting and give you an idea about the kinds of items that cross my desk.
The CPB Ombudsman's mailbag is never as full as those of my counterparts at PBS and NPR. I do get mail, however, and I do read it. It comes electronically via the ombudsman's website, or by regular U.S. post, or through telephone comments collected and transcribed by CPB.
As you might expect, most of those who contact the Ombudsman are unhappy about something.
Among the things they were unhappy about over the past few months:
That Gwen Ifill was chosen by the Debate Commission to moderate the vice presidential debate between Sen. Joseph Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin. The issue was that Ms. Ifill was writing a book about a new generation of black politicians, "Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama." Many correspondents felt this was an obvious conflict of interest, no matter what the book said (if anything) about the 2008 presidential race. Many called for CPB or PBS to insist that she step down. Neither did, nor should they have done so.
I do tend to agree that Ms. Ifill as moderator carried an unfortunate appearance of a conflict. I think the world of Gwen Ifill and felt she faced an awkward situation. Should she give up a distinguished invitation that rarely has come to a woman or an African American?
Or, should she forge ahead and prove to the critics that she could perform even handedly in the face-off between Biden and Palin? She took the latter course and acquitted herself in an evenhanded manner.
After the debate, I heard no further complaints about bias on the part of Gwen Ifill.
Typical of a different kind of complaint, a KNCT viewer in Texas was unhappy because, "Today I tuned into KNCT's scheduled broadcast of BBC's World News (at 5:00 a.m.) and found a blank screen. No broadcast, no explanation . . . snow." Mine is a copy of a letter originally sent to the local broadcaster, and that is exactly where the issue needs to be taken-up.
I get a lot of these, particularly requests to know when a favorite program might be repeated or why it didn't appear. All local scheduling, schedule interruptions, schedule changes really need to be addressed locally. I can't keep up with equipment failures in Kileen, Texas.
Bill Moyers engendered the wrath of viewers of his Friday evening program for an essay he delivered on January 9. Moyers, a trained theologian, issued a Biblical interpretation of the Book of Deuteronomy which included the statement that, "God soaked violence became genetically coded," among Jews.
This produced many letters to the PBS Ombudsman, Michael Getler, hundreds to the Moyers "Talk Back" blog. I received just a few. Most of mine were critical. One Massachusetts viewer charged that Moyer's remarks were "right out of Mein Kampf." However, as with nearly any Israeli-Arab issue, both sides had their say. From Florida, by e-mail, a viewer complained, "Too much PBS-TV and NPR air time is devoted to presenting, promoting or defending the actions and positions of the government of Israel." He asks, "Is CPB selling editorial time?" It is not.
The Moyers imbroglio was addressed carefully and at great length by Michael Getler in his PBS Ombudsman's column of January 16. Those interested in a full and smart analysis should take a look there.
One constant line of thought registered by correspondents to the CPB Ombudsman is that PBS (notably The NewsHour) leans toward "the investor class" in its selection of guests. A telephone caller put it this way:
"I'm looking for PBS or NPR to feature a commentator on the economy that is not 'pro-investor class' — that is to say the wealthy — someone who seeks a credible alternative viewpoint to suggest that a managed economy is not a bad thing . . . . We need to grow the middle class with the production of real wealth, not just the investor class, who have an excess of funds to gamble on the stock market."
Another caller assembled a list of the NewsHour analysts recently interviewed on the economy and the financial industry. He characterized them as, "All true believers and they've all done quite well in our competitive marketplace."
This came by electronic message: "I am becoming increasing concerned by the commercialization of PBS. Each NOVA I see, for example, is preceded by propaganda by an oil company. Please don't sell PBS to the corporations that rule so much of America."
Another referred to a Diane Rehm interview with Robert Samuelson, the business columnist for Newsweek and The Washington Post. "Robert Samuelson, like Henry Paulson and the people who man the financial governance in this country are biased in favor of money! That is to say, the financial industry is a distinctive industry different from every other industry because it is connected to money, which is both a medium of exchange, trade, and is itself a commodity."
All this is interesting considering that the complaints I most often hear are that both NPR and PBS lean so far left that the complaining listener or viewer vows never again to send money to public broadcasting.
Some recent examples:
"I'm so angry I've decided I'm not going to give to public television at all anymore."
"For anyone at CPB who thinks that NPR is unbiased and objective, I have some WaMu stock I'd like to sell them. I used to give money to CPB, then sent it in with the request that it be used only for PBS, and finally stopped giving altogether."
And, in conclusion:
I also hear from viewers who evidently are getting some of their news from other sources than public broadcasting.
A female caller from the 412 area code: "I've heard that Obama funded and orchestrated a genocide in Kenya and it's been covered up! Whole villages of people were slaughtered, and this was not shown on your news. Women and old people and children were killed, and women and young boys were raped. We need to know more about this! We don't understand why you're censoring the news!"
Next posting: An analysis of two PBS documentaries about politics.
