PBS Now To Be “Fair And Balanced”

Paul Farhi today updates the looming train wreck that is PBS and its government funder, the government-run Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He explains that amid “conflict over the political content of its programming” (i.e. the conservatives in the CPB don’t think PBS reflects their views enough), PBS yesterday announced new editorial standards that will ensure “balance and fairness” on the channel.

PBS will also hire its own ombudsman, meaning that a total of four–including two government ombudsman at CPB and one at NPR–will oversee public broadcasting. That’s totally not a recipe for trouble, right?

The new standards (which one would hope are different from the ones that Fox uses to establish “balance and fairness”) were required by CPB in order for the group to release the $23 million it promised to PBS for operations this year.

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