Public Broadcasting Flouts the Law

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 30, 1999 | by Reed Irvine

The discovery that many public broadcasting stations throughout the country have been exchanging donor lists with the Democratic Party for use in fund raising has stirred up criticism on Capitol Hill. It started with station WGBH in Boston after a 4-year-old boy received a fundraising letter from the Democratic National Committee, or DNC. His mother had sent a contribution to WGBH in his name, and it didn't take her long to deduce that the station had made his name available to the Democrats. As a Republican and an attorney, she was upset.

The story was reported by the Boston Globe on May 8, but it created no immediate waves. The Massachusetts News, a conservative monthly, put the story on the front page of its July issue, reporting that Leah Hollenberger of WGBH said the name-swap with the DNC simply was a mistake. She blamed it on a staff transition, saying, "It did violate station policy and we are very sorry and apologetic it happened. Steps have been taken to make sure it will not happen again." She refused to identify the employees who had made the mistake. Angela Lifsey, director of media and community relations for WGBH, claimed she knew of no other instance in which the station had violated its policy of not sharing lists with political or religious groups.

Doug Fleming, a tax lawyer, told the paper that he would not be surprised if the IRS had contacted the station about this matter. He said that if it was found to De an error made by a low-level employee, it might just get a warning. Fleming said, "It would be more serious if it was directed from the top, intentional and planned. The IRS might then end up revoking its nonprofit tax status."

The Globe revisited the story on July 14, when it learned that the sub-committee considering the authorization for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, was planning to discuss it. The next day, the Washington Times spread the story across the top of its front page, and it soon became national news, with the establishment media weighing in with news stories and editorials. These stories revealed that the claims that the swapping had been a onetime mistake were false and that the practice was widespread among public broadcasting stations.

At about the same time, the non-profit Western Journalism Center, or WJC, revealed that it had discovered what had triggered an IRS audit that had nearly bankrupted it. The smoking gun was a fax to President Clinton complaining about an ad the center had placed in the Los Angeles Times that questioned the finding that White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster had committed suicide at Fort Marcy Park in Virginia. The White House had sent the fax to the IRS, which sent it to the key district office in California for appropriate action. That turned out to be auditing the WJC to see if it had engaged in partisan political activity that would justify revoking its tax-exempt status. The center eventually was given a clean bill of health.

The list-swapping between public broadcasting stations and the DNC is far closer to involvement in partisan politics than running an ad criticizing the investigations of Foster's death. With very few exceptions, the swaps were with the Democrats, not Republicans. This indicates a willingness on the part of the stations to help the Democrats raise money. It also shows that the Democrats had reason to believe that people who support public broadcasting are likely to be supportive of the Democratic Party.

Rep. Billy Tauzin, chairman of the Commerce subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection considering the CPB authorization, commented, "This is clear evidence of everything the critics have been saying about some elements of public broadcasting being too doggone close to one of the major parties." The statute creating the CPB included a provision that required objectivity and balance in all programs financed with any federal money. That has been ignored for more than 30 years. Before the collapse of the Evil Empire, public TV and radio stations were notorious for airing programs that cast communist countries, communist-led guerrilla movements and even homegrown Communists such as Angela Davis in a favorable light. Having gotten away with that for many years, the liberals who control the programming don't fear being audited by the IRS for swapping lists and airing programs that appeal to liberals. They may quit swapping donor lists with the DNC, but unless Congress reduces their funding, don't look for any changes in the programming the liberals love.

Reed Irvine is chairman of Accuracy in Media, a press watchdog group based in Washington.