The reason I COMMENT ON public media every day....WYPR in Baltimore....is that it was the only source of media that wasn't corporate until 2010 when Congress gave a green light to make it global Chamber of Commerce.  Now, no one thinks public media doesn't have a slant wherever it is...but the idea of fair and balanced news.......news based on real data people trusted.....was prized.  I believed in public media through 2009 and 2010 as it gave good coverage of the massive financial fraud and crash.  Then, it went Wall Street all the time.

Below we see the PBS news was indeed run by corporate entities and should not have been receiving public money.  Selling a 'private non-profit'.....REALLY?

PUBLIC MEDIA IS NOW CORPORATE MEDIA WITH THE SAME CORPORATE WELFARE USE OF TAXPAYER SUBSIDY!

After pledging transparency, PBS hides
details of new deal with billionaire owner of NewsHour

By
David Sirota
On
March 7, 2014


“The American public called PBS the most trusted source for news and
public affairs programs and the most ‘fair’ source for news coverage.” – PBS, February 20,
2014


Last month, in response to Pando’s revelations that anti-pension mogul
John Arnold secretly was financing PBS’s “Pension Peril” series, the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting issued a scathing report demanding
immediate reform. Criticizing “the lack of transparency” at PBS, CPB’s
ombudsman Joel Kaplan declared that public broadcasting outlets must let the
public access details of their financial dealings.


So how’s that new commitment to transparency going?


Here’s how: Once again, a PBS flagship station is in the process of
negotiating a deal with a politically active mogul. Once again, the deal
involves the NewsHour — the same iconic PBS program that stealthily promoted
Arnold’s anti-pension programming. And once again, PBS is refusing to disclose
the deal’s financial details to the public.


The major difference this time is that this new story of secrecy isn’t about
who funds the journalism on the NewsHour. It is about who actually
owns the NewsHour.


* * * *


Most Americans likely assume that the NewsHour (which, after all, is made
with support from viewers like you) is actually owned and produced by PBS. It is
an understandable assumption considering PBS’s own president declared that the
NewsHour “is ours, and ours
alone,” and further considering that the program receives
millions of public dollars every year.


However, since 1994, the NewsHour has been produced and primarily owned by
the for-profit colossus, Liberty Media. Liberty, which is run by conservative
billionaire John Malone, owns the majority stake in MacNeil/Lehrer Productions –
the entity that produces the journalistic content of the show. While other
standalone public television projects are often produced by small independent
production companies, the NewsHour stands out for being owned by a major
for-profit media conglomerate headed by a politically active billionaire.


But now that ownership is about to change. According to an internal memo sent
to staff by NewsHour’s founders and minority owners Robert MacNeil and Jim
Lehrer, ownership of NewsHour will soon be transferred from Liberty Media to
Washington, D.C.’s PBS member station, WETA.



We have concluded that the time has come to find a new, long-term
home for The NewsHour. The current operation has worked beautifully because our
long-time partnership with Liberty Media has been as perfect as any such
relationship could be. When Liberty acquired its majority interest in MLP 18
years ago it was done with the agreement that editorial control and management
would always rest with us–Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer, individually. Liberty
has honored that arrangement in such a way that has made it possible for us to
have the independence we all have enjoyed all these years.
Despite the chummy nature of the letter, and the apparent generosity
underlying the deal – Liberty is handing the NewsHour to PBS! – the deal raises
a huge number of questions.


For one thing, why is the for-profit Liberty Media agreeing to transfer
ownership of a privately owned, $28-million-a-year asset
to a PBS member station? Is it an altruistic move on the part of John Malone or
might there possibly be some financial or tax benefit to Liberty? Also, during
Liberty’s ownership of NewsHour, exactly how much money from “viewers like us”
(and taxpayers like us) went from PBS to NewsHour and into the coffers of
Liberty? And how much control did Liberty have over NewsHour’s journalistic
output?


Following Pando’s reporting on John Arnold and WNET, CPB ombudsman Joel
Kaplan agreed that “without actually being able to examine” the documents
involved in PBS transactions, “there is no way to know” if PBS content is being
unduly manipulated. Referring to WNET’s move to give Arnold back his money,
Kaplan added: “I hope that the decision to return the money was not done to
avoid disclosing the original contract between the (Arnold) foundation and WNET
– that agreement still needs to be disclosed.”


Ultimately, he concluded that “in the interest of objectivity, balance and
transparency, such agreements should never be confidential.” (Three weeks after
the ombudsman published his findings, WNET and the Arnold Foundation are still refusing to release the terms of their
multi-million-dollar agreement.)


Despite this new commitment to transparency, it seems nothing has changed at
PBS. Over the past month, as part of our continuing investigation of the public broadcasting system,
Pando has contacted top officials at PBS, WETA and the Liberty-owned
MacNeil-Lehrer Productions requesting basic information about the upcoming
transfer-of-ownership transaction.


For example, we asked how much the NewsHour is being valued at for purposes
of a potentially lucrative tax write-off for Liberty Media. We also asked
exactly how much taxpayers have spent over the years subsidizing a Liberty Media
property that now may be transferred to the public, at a potential cost to the
public.


Despite the clear transparency demands from the CPB, neither PBS nor Liberty
would disclose any details of the deal. Nor would PBS, MacNeil/Lehrer or WETA
spokespeople commit to disclosing any details in future. Even the most basic
questions about the current funding and editorial direction of NewsHour were met
with vague answers, or no answers at all.


Officials refuse to release details of NewsHour’s existing financial
arrangement


With public broadcasting officials refusing to answer questions about its
pending ownership transfer deal with Liberty Media, Pando requested basic
information about the existing financial and editorial contract between Liberty
Media, MacNeil-Lehrer Productions, WETA and the hundreds of PBS stations that
air the NewsHour. More specifically, we asked exactly how much money taxpayers
spend each year to subsidize the show’s whopping $28-million-a-year
budget, and what kind of editorial control PBS has over the
Liberty Media property.


In response, a MacNeil-Lehrer Productions spokesperson revealed that “PBS
funding represents roughly half the PBS NewsHour revenue budget.” By that count,
every year approximately $14 million of public money goes to the for-profit
Liberty Media’s subsidiary through the non-profit PBS. However, the spokesperson
provided no documentary evidence of that, nor did she even permit Pando to
review the existing contract between WETA and Liberty Media. When asked how that
squares with the CPB’s demands for transparency, the MacNeil-Lehrer Productions
spokesperson said: “Contracts between funders and producers are not public.”


Similarly, Pando asked how much – if any – profit Liberty Media takes every
year out of PBS’s multi-million-dollar public subsidies to the NewsHour. We also
asked for documentation showing whether or not the tax-deductible contributions
the show solicits from “viewers like you” are actually being used to subsidize
the private profits of Liberty Media. And we asked for financial documents
showing whether or not the NewsHour’s recurring deficits – which it has cited to get more public
subsidies – factors in profit margins for Liberty Media.


A MacNeil-Lehrer Productions’ spokesperson asserted only that the for-profit
Liberty Media “takes no profit from the ongoing operation of the PBS NewsHour
program.”


If it is in fact true that Malone and the publicly traded Liberty Media takes
no profit from its $28-million-a-year property, this would seem to violate
Liberty’s fiduciary responsibility to maximize profits on behalf of its
shareholders. It would also run counter to sentiments expressed by those with
knowledge of the Liberty-NewsHour relationship.


For instance, in 1994, Variety cited a “source familiar with the
negotiations” between Liberty Media and MacNeil-Lehrer Productions saying that
John Malone “may want the good-will this buys him, but he is also in this to
make money.”


Likewise, in contrast to MacNeil-Lehrer’s “no profit” assertion, just months
before his company purchased its controlling stake in MacNeil-Lehrer
Productions, Malone himself publicly declared that “Nobody wants to go out (and)
invest hundreds of millions of dollars of risk capital for the public interest.”
He added: “One would be fired as an executive of a profit-making company if he
took that stance.”


Again, MacNeil-Lehrer Productions refused to provide any documentation
outlining the current financial arrangements between WETA and Liberty Media.
Thus, as the CPB ombudsman said in his recent report, “without actually being
able to examine” such financial documents “there is no way to know” if any of
MacNeil-Lehrer Productions’ “no profit” assertions are accurate.


Officials refuse to provide evidence of guarantees for editorial
independence


As mentioned above, the NewsHour was the program that broadcast the infamous
“Pension Peril” segments without explicitly disclosing that anti-pension
billionaire John Arnold was funding the series. In light of that being
discovered during the “Wolf of Wall Street” investigation, Pando
requested information from WETA, PBS and MacNeil-Lehrer Productions about
editorial control, and whether Liberty and/or Malone have been exercising such
control over the NewsHour.


In response, a MacNeil-Lehrer Productions spokesperson told Pando that the
letter from MacNeil and Lehrer announcing the transfer of ownership “makes it
clear that Robin and Jim have editorial and management control, and that Liberty
Media has honored this agreement.” The spokesperson also forwarded two
20-year-old press releases in which Liberty Media and MacNeil-Lehrer Productions
rhetorically promised to preserve editorial independence.


Yet, when asked for proof that such independence is contractually guaranteed
and protected in Liberty Media’s original agreement to purchase the NewsHour,
the spokesperson declined the request.


This is particularly relevant not just because of the NewsHour’s role in the
recent “Wolf of Sesame Street” scandal, but also because
of the long-term political activism of both Liberty and Malone.


According to the Sunlight Foundation,
Liberty Media employees have spent roughly $2 million on campaign contributions
in the last 20 years. Most of that money has flowed to Republican candidates.
That includes top Liberty executives like Greg Maffei being major financiers of the
Republican Party’s national campaigns. Meanwhile, the Public Accountability Initiative’s
LittleSis reports that in the same time period, Malone spent
almost $200,000 on campaign contributions, mostly to Republicans. Malone also
sits on the board of the right-wing Cato
Institute, whose employees are periodic guests on the NewsHour.


At the same time, studies suggest that the NewsHour has often artificially
narrowed the terms of the political discourse that it permits in its broadcasts
– and, perhaps not so coincidentally, in ways that seem congruent with Malone’s
conservative politics.


In a 2006 analysis of PBS
programming, the watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting found that
“Republicans outnumbered Democrats on the NewsHour by 2-to-1″ and that “public
interest groups accounted for just 4 percent of total sources.” Similarly, in a
2010 analysis of PBS
programming, FAIR found that “Republicans outnumbered Democrats among live
(NewsHour) guests by a 3 to 2 ratio” and that overall, the show’s “sources (are)
drawn largely from a narrow range of elite white male experts.”


When asked why Pando’s request for public information about editorial
independence on public broadcasting’s flagship news program was being declined,
the MacNeil-Lehrer Productions spokesperson insisted that the public
broadcasting agreement between Liberty and MacNeil-Lehrer Productions “is a
private partnership.”


In other words: this deal is between PBS, WETA and Liberty Media. Viewers
like you should keep their noses out — but keep the donations flowing.


As of publication time, Liberty Media had not returned a call for comment
(our initial attempt to reach them was ~2 weeks ago). We’ll continue to push PBS
and Liberty for answers on the details of the NewsHour deal, and will update
this article with any further comment we receive.




__________________________________________________
IN BALTIMORE WE HAVE CORPORATE AND CRONY MEDIA EVEN IN OUR PUBLIC MEDIA STATION WYPR. YOU WILL NOT HEAR ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS, ONLY WAYS TO MAXIMIZE CORPORATE PROFITS!!!







Regarding Fraser Smith commentary on Baltimore's fiscal health:

I won't even mention my usual response of bringing back billions of dollars pilfered through corporate fraud from Maryland and Baltimore, let's just look at economics. The common phrase for most economists is 'It's the wealth inequity stupid'! Indeed it is. Let's just look at the news headlines today. American Airlines merges to form largest airline in world. We know airline ticket prices will rise as they move towards billion dollar a year profits so all of the general wealth needed to fuel consumerism will be sucked into yet another corporate profit-maximizing scheme all the while American Airlines was allowed to enter a bankruptcy of convenience to shed all wage and benefit requirements from labor agreements further impoverishing the general population who now cannot consume all for profits at the top. WE ALL KNOW THAT IS BAD ECONOMIC POLICY AND YET WE KEEP ELECTING POLITICIANS THAT ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN.

Look locally and listen to Obama's State of the Union. He says as does Rawlings-Blake and O'Malley that the public taxpayer needs to pay for all of corporate job training and R and D by making our public education system into vocational training and 'innovation centers'. Manufacturing has union apprenticeship programs that are the best in the world that have always done that at no cost to the public so why are the taxpayers being made to do it now? Corporations don't want unions. Just look at Baltimore's casino situation to see the exact condition as City Hall prepares to use taxpayer money no doubt the very proceeds from gambling meant for education to pay for public casino training programs.

So we all know what the problem with our domestic economy is....the impoverishment of labor and government coffers all for corporate profit and that is the solution. When you have corporate media like WYPR with an economist who works towards just those corporate profits and never talks about the solutions I just gave you have failed policy being presented as a solution and THAT IS THE PROBLEM.


___________________________________________________________________________
THIS IS MY COMMENT TO WYPR'S CLAIM TO BE THE PURVEYOR OF FREE ELECTIONS:


I experienced what I think may have been the first actual real life evidence of string theory and multiple universes....WYPR saying they promote political education and free and fair elections.  My goodness!  I have not had one of my issues brought forward in the year I've made a point of trying because I'm a fiscal progressive and WYPR only promotes Third Way wealth and global corporations.  The League of Women Voters say they were unable to get WYPR to carry primary debates or even link to them this spring so a complete media blackout of primary challengers occurred this year and each year.  That's why we have incumbents for life.  No political advertizing?  Well, when the only issues allowed to be aired are those of the incumbents and when, just before elections incumbents pass 'feel good' legislation that receives media coverage......that is one-way street advertizing. 

Two years ago the Maryland Assembly passed a 'No Social Media campaigning bill' that would have allowed candidates to get around this media blackout; it passes online voter registration and is moving towards online voting all of which everybody including the New York Times calls 'voter fraud waiting to happen'.  Yet, none of this is carried on WYPR.  We are watching our elective system disappear as public media keeps us in the dark.  That isn't your parent's public media!


__________________________________________________________________________________
THIS IS MY LETTER TO MARYLAND MORNING AND MIDDAY WITH DAN RODRICKS.  WYPR IN MARYLAND IS CAPTURED BY A RULING BOARD MADE UP OF THE  5%, SO THE PROGRAMMING REPRESENTS THIS.  PUBLIC MEDIA WAS IMMEDIATELY GABBED BY CORPORATE/WEALTH CONCERNS AFTER THE 2010 ELECTIONS.  THE CHANGE WAS STARTLING AS MARKETPLACE BECAME THE DRIVER OF PROGRAMMING.  NOW, ALL PROGRAMMING AND POLICY IS THIRD WAY CORPORATE OR CONSERVATIVE.....NO FISCAL PROGRESSIVES ALLOWED!



Do you think it odd that WYPR has an abundance of political coverage for the elections in November but had a complete media blackout on political coverage for the primaries?  I am watching to see if that coverage continues.

What we will look for are issues being covered that aren't simply O'Malley/Rawlings-Blake issues.  These are the public issues in state and local politics:

1)  We have a state that is ranked at the bottom in the Center for Public Integrity study for fraud and corruption.  Indeed, billions are lost each year to the state and city from health care entitlement fraud and we have yet to receive billions from the massive mortgage fraud, having only the $25 billion interest payment last year on what all financial analysts place at $600-800 billion compromise settlement for trillions in fraud.

IT IS OBVIOUS THAT A CASH STRAPPED CITY LIKE BALTIMORE WHICH IS ALSO GROUND ZERO FOR THE FRAUD AS THE FRAUD IS DIRECTED AT THE POOR WOULD MAKE THAT A PRIORITY.  THE ONLY REASON IT WOULDN'T IS THAT THE PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE SHOUTING ARE BENEFITING FROM THE FRAUD.  THIS IS BIG NEWS AND PUBLIC MEDIA WOULD COVER THIS!

2)  2/3 of Americans want income inequity reversed.  It is the only path back to a strong middle-class.  We have corporate Third Way Democrats in leadership positions in the Federal and State levels, and our City Council is simply run by developers.  Given this, if WYPR only repeats what these leaders say as issue stances, then you are not stating public interest policy.  We have seen $3 trillion in corporate tax breaks as "job creators" with no jobs.  THAT IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE FOR THE PUBLIC.  We see only tax policy to, at best, make the rich pay what we do when we need a strong progressive tax reform with 70% rate at the top.  No candidate is saying that and THAT IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE FOR THE PUBLIC.  Instead we see increasing policy lowering the tax rates at the high end at local levels.

3)  Reestablishing Rule of Law in America must happen if we are to move back towards a first world status.  Bush gutted the white collar criminal agencies and sent all personnel to Homeland Security.  We have a skeleton crew in the agencies nation wide.  It is no coincidence that we have more money moved by fraud to the top income in human history.  THIS IS A GREAT BIG DEAL AND HUGELY IMPORTANT STORY FOR THE PUBLIC THAT WE NEVER HEAR ON WYPR......PUBLIC MEDIA.  ISN'T THAT ODD?

4)  Free market globalization was unleashed by Bill Clinton when he created Third Way Caucus and ended the Glass-Steagall banking wall.  He did it as people shouted loudly that it would create unaccountable businesses and massive income inequity.  He knew that the middle-class and unions would be killed and he knew democracy would be undermined by this inequity.  This is a person running as a Democrat.  THIS IS BIG NEWS AND IT IS CRITICAL INFORMATION FOR THE PUBLIC AND YET, WE HAVE NOT HEARD ONE DESCRIPTION OF THIS ON PUBLIC MEDIA.  AMERICA HAS HAD A 3 PARTY SYSTEM JUST LIKE THE UNITED KINGDOM FOR 20 YEARS.......CONSERVATIVES/LIBERALS/LABOR WITH LIBERALS BEING CORPORATE AND WORKING AGAINST LABOR ........AND YET THE PUBLIC DOESN'T KNOW THIS EVEN THROUGH THIS COMING ELECTION.  ISN'T THAT ODD?

5)  Health care reform is about creating mega-health industries through consolidation into global systems that will look like Wall Street.  It is happening now.  We all know that these will be profit-driven and prey upon the poor just as Wall Street does.....so, there will be no entitlements.......Medicare/Medicaid if these health systems are allowed to grow beyond regional size.  2/3 of Americans will not be able to access health care beyond public health status.  THIS IS A BIG DEAL TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC DON'T YOU THINK?  WOULDN'T PUBLIC MEDIA BE THE FIRST TO EXPLAIN THAT TO THE PUBLIC?  ISN'T IT ODD THAT IT ISN'T?
___________________________________________________________________________________
SADLY, AMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA HAS MOVED INTO THIRD WAY HANDS.  POOR LIBERAL GARRISON KEILLOR SPEAKS WEEKLY OF HIS DEMISE.  GEORGE SOROS HAD BEEN THOUGHT TO BE A LIBERAL PHILANTHROPIST AND HIS BACKING FOR YEARS GAVE US PROGRESSIVE PROGRAMMING.  HE HAS GONE THIRD WAY CORPORATE AS HAS THE MEDIA GROUPS HE SUPPORTS. THIS IS WHY PUBLIC RADIO PROGRAMMING HAS GONE WALL STREET------PROFIT OVER PEOPLE IS NOT PROGRESSIVE.   EVEN OPEN SOCIETY, HIS DEMOCRATIZING ORGANIZATION HAS GONE THE THIRD WAY AS WELL.


WYPR IN BALTIMORE PUSHED PROGRESSIVE CITY ACTIVIST MARC STEINER OUT OF THE STATION'S PROGRAMMING AND NOW HAS THE CORPORATE STANCE WITH BASU GIVING ECONOMIC UPDATES AND AMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA'S MARKETPLACE BLASTING WALL STREET INTO OUR MORNING AND EVENING COMMUTES.  THEY ARE STAUNCH SUPPORTERS OF THE THIRD WAY  INCUMBENTS AND MAKE SURE THE MEDIA STAYS WITH THESE INCUMBENTS.  THEIR PROGRAMMING IS INFUSED WITH CORPORATE ADDS AS FUNDRAISING DRIVES ARE CUT TO ONE DAY AS A RESULT.  THE PUBLIC IS REQUIRED TO BE THE MAIN SOURCE OF DONATIONS AND A BIAS TOWARDS DONORS ARE NOT ALLOWED.

WE NEED TO ATTEND MEETINGS TO REMIND THESE PUBLIC STATIONS THAT THE 95% ARE THE BULK OF LISTENERS AND SHOULD BE THE MAJOR MEMBERS OF ALL BOARDS.....WHICH THEY ARE NOT.  GOVERNANCE DECIDES ISSUES SURROUNDING BOARD MEMBERSHIPS AND PROGRAMMING.  WITH ALL MAINSTREAM MEDIA CAPTURED BY CORPORATIONS WE MUST DEMAND THAT PUBLIC MEDIA BE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST!

ATTEND THESE MEETINGS!!!!!!


Community Advisory Board The WYPR Community Advisory Board

CAB members are a volunteer group of interested citizens and listeners who are appointed by the WYPR Board of Directors.  The CAB is required to meet at regular intervals.  The CAB deliberates independently of station management and WYPR's Board of Directors. It determines its own agenda and elects its own leadership.


012/2013 CAB Meetings held at Our Daily Bread Employment Center and begin at 6:00 PM.September 24, 2012 (Please note date change from 9/26/12)
November 28, 2012
January 23, 2013
April 3, 2013
May 29, 2013

Directions to Our Daily Bread Employment Center


Governance Committee  (all meetings begin at 3pm. WYPR offices - 2216 North Charles Street)

October 1, 2012

November 5, 2012

February 4, 2013

March 11, 2013

May 13, 2013

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