NPR, Bush appointees duel over bias, funds

WASHINGTON — Executives at National Public Radio are increasingly at odds with the Bush appointees who lead the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

In one of several points of conflict in recent months, the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which allocates federal funds for public radio and television, is considering a plan to monitor Middle East coverage on NPR news programs for evidence of bias, a corporation spokesman said on Friday.

The corporation's board has told its staff that it should consider redirecting money away from national news broadcasts and toward local music programs produced by NPR stations.

Top officials at NPR and member stations are upset as well about the corporation's decision to appoint two ombudsmen to judge the content of programs for balance. And managers of public radio stations criticized the corporation in a resolution offered at their annual meeting two weeks ago urging it not to interfere in NPR editorial decisions.

Bryan Schott, KCPW news director, said his station would potentially be the most affected of any NPR station in Utah. That's because the station is all-news and information, with no musical programming.

(KCPW, in Library Square, is at FM-88.3/105.3 and AM-1010 on the Salt Lake radio dial.)

KBYU, KUER, KPCW and KUSU, other NPR stations in Utah, play music and would probably still receive funding for that.

Schott said local stations depend on funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Local stations also have to pay NPR a fee to air each program.

"It could put us in a financial bind," he said, explaining it wouldn't be enough to shut down the station but would significantly affect its ability to cover the news.

Schott also said he's very concerned about these issues, because he believes NPR has fair reporting in the Middle East.

"I don't think there's a bias," he said.

Schott also noted that such a crisis in public broadcasting funding came once before, during the Nixon administration.

"This has happened before," he said.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, has also blocked NPR from broadcasting its programs on a station in Berlin owned by the U.S. government.