SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, I took a long look at the nation’s foremost liberal scold, Bill Moyers (here and here). Among the many questions the article raised was this one: Why would a show dedicated to promoting the views of the most extreme elements of the far left in America get a coveted prime-time spot on the television network funded by the American taxpayers?
Some PBS sympathizers guessed that the decision-makers at PBS either didn’t know or didn’t recognize just how left-wing the avuncular Moyers has become. There is some support for that speculation. At their convention last month, PBS executives invited the likes of Alan Alda, Robert Redford, and Ted Turner to address the gathering. One local PBS executive phoned in his complaint to The Weekly Standard. “I’m sitting here looking at the schedule and I can’t find a single right-of-center person on the entire thing.” So, yes, despite years of criticism that PBS skews dramatically to the left, maybe PBS big-wigs are still ideologically oblivious. It’s the ideological equivalent of Shaquille O’Neal looking at Manute Bol–he’s tall, but he’s not that tall.
