This time PBS really IS in danger!

You might have seen, over the last few years, various e-mail petitions that claimed there was a right-wing conspiracy to destroy NPR or PBS. Those were bogus, and you should immediately delete any e-mail that asks you to sign the e-mail itself and forward it.

But it looks like the Armies of Darkness are on the move for real this time. Efforts are being made to add right-wing spin to PBS. The News Hour is already a victim of the new journalistic wimpiness, and they tried out a show featuring the risible Joe Scarborough. It failed. Next up is a show hosted by editor-in-chief of the ultra-right wing Wall Street Journal editorial page, Paul Gigot. (An editorial that appeared under his watch notoriously referred to Americans too poor to pay income taxes as "lucky duckies.")

Here's the pitch from Free Press:

PBS is in jeopardy. Today's New York Times describes secret efforts by Republican operatives to make our Public Broadcasting System more "fair and balanced."

Kenneth Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) -- the government-funded organization that was designed to shield PBS from political pressure -- is aggressively pressing PBS to correct what he considers "liberal bias."

He secretly hired a White House staffer to help draft "guiding principles" for the future of CPB. He brought in a consultant to monitor the "anti-Bush" and "anti-Tom Delay" content on Bill Moyers' NOW program, and then set up and funded right-wing commentator Paul Gigot's new PBS program. Now Tomlinson is working behind the scenes to stack CPB's board and executive offices with Republican Party cronies.

* * * *

Go to the site by following the link above. Sign the petition. If you have a minute, personalize the message. It makes a difference. Then pass it on. Government interference in public media is just one more example of the right's attempts to create a fascist state and control the information the public has access to.