Welcome to the era of radical right-wing “balance”:

Welcome to a new era in the battle over public broadcasting. Instead of simply threatening to cut federal funding for PBS — as Nixon, Reagan and Newt Gingrich did — the Bush administration has taken a new approach. Far from standing as a firewall against outside political pressure, Tomlinson is trying to force PBS to toe the Republican line, turning the network into a taxpayer-funded facsimile of Fox News. The GOP coup scored a major victory in late June, when the CPB board quietly confirmed Patricia Harrison — a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee — as its new president.

Supporters of public broadcasting were appalled. “You get the sense,” says Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., “that they want to turn NPR into the RNC.”

A ruddy-faced and rolypoly man with a close-cropped white beard, Tomlinson looks a little bit like a Muppet himself. Since he was selected to represent Republicans on the CPB board in 2000, Tomlinson has been determined to stamp out what he sees as “liberal advocacy journalism” at PBS. The only problem with his theory of bias — widespread among conservatives — is that there is no proof it actually exists. So Tomlinson commissioned two polls in 2002 and 2003, hoping to confirm that viewers share his distaste for the political tenor of PBS.

Both polls revealed the opposite: Eighty percent of viewers hold a favorable opinion of public broadcasting, and only eight percent consider its coverage of the Iraq War biased. Focus groups in the red-state hotbeds of Louisville, Kentucky, and Salt Lake City proved similarly disappointing. But instead of releasing the results, Tomlinson kept them under wraps until he was required to release them to Congress. “He goes after research that can support his claims of bias,” one executive familiar with the polls told Rolling Stone. “He’s not able to find much — so then he suppresses the research to be able to continue arguing that there really is a problem.”

If the data do not fit the “facts” as propagated by the right-wing, hide and obfuscate and fabricate your own “facts” for your talking points, that if false never the less discredit those who don’t “think right”.

Facts no longer matter, only spin. There are no “facts”, only ideologically based accusations and smear campaigns that while having no basis in reality have a sticking power none the less.

Public broadcasting is only the latest in a litany of irresponsibility displayed by the far right-wing, urged on by the so-called “religious right” which isn’t really religious other than using religion to further their controlling agenda.

For those of you on the right-wing, do these actions and attitudes really, truly sit well with you?

Win at any and all costs, data and what is right for the nation as a whole be damned?

Is that truly what you want?

If your answer is “yes” then I suggest you read history and recall the fall of Rome, which was from within, not from external forces.

If no, then why did you vote for these people now in power?

Do your own math.

I cannot do it for you.

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