tomlinson resigns from the board

ken tomlinson, who tried to republicanize and slash funding for public broadcasting, as well as hired a mysterious hoosier named fred mann to file a ridiculous report on "bias" in npr/pbs content, has announced that he will retire from the board of CPB:

The board has been reviewing a CPB Inspector General's report--called for by a pair of congressmen--on Tomlinson's relationship with the board stemming from Tomlinson's attempts to add more conservative programming.

The board said in a statement: "[F]ormer chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson has resigned from the CPB board. The board does not believe that Mr. Tomlinson acted maliciously or with any intent to harm CPB or public broadcasting, and the board recognizes that Mr. Tomlinson strongly disputes the findings in the soon-to-be-released Inspector General’s report.

"The board expresses its disappointment in the performance of former key staff whose responsibility it was to advise the board and its members.

"Nonetheless, both the board and Mr. Tomlinson believe it is in the best interests of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that he no longer remain on the board.

"The board commends Mr. Tomlinson for his legitimate efforts to achieve balance and objectivity in public broadcasting."

this is kind of contradictory. the board is saying "we don't think he did anything wrong, but it was time for him to get the hell out of here." why would it be time for him to leave if they don't think he's done anything wrong? the obvious answer is that tomlinson's mere presense at CPB continues to damage CPB's reputation, and we can only assume that his presense there would be even more damaging once the IG report is finally released (it's already been reported that tomlinson "strongly disputes" the conclusions of the report). or in other words, they all know that he did plenty wrong, but parts of the board are still sympathetic to him and so they're partially covering for him.

but don't cheer too loudly:

"It was time that Mr. Tomlinson stepped down," said Center for Digital Democracy Executive Director Jeff Chester. But, he added. "CPB needs a thorough house cleaning," he said, "We await the IG report's release."

Ditto for Free Press executive director Josh Silver: “It’s time to clean house at CPB. We need to get the politics out and put the public back in public broadcasting.”

Chester also wasn'tdone with Tomlinson: "Mr. Tomlinson still remains head of the powerful Broadcasting Board of Governors. It is likely he resigned to help remain in that position."¶