PBS dial dynamics

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A New York Times editorial writer phoned to follow up on that paper's recent Page One article that charged I was "aggressively pressing public television" to reflect the political balance and diversity required by law.

At one point she expressed concern the "Wall Street Journal Editorial Report" -- a public television program launched in part to balance the advocacy journalism of Bill Moyers' "NOW" -- would soon dominate airwaves in major markets. I explained there was no chance of that.

In fact, while better than two-thirds of public television stations carry "NOW" prime-time, less than one-fifth provide such prominence to the Wall Street Journal program. Indeed, many major markets relegate the Journal program to slots like 4 a.m.

Why haven't you done something about that? she asked.

For the same reason I did not go public more than a year ago with material from a consultant's study that documented the liberal bias of "NOW," where the best chance of hearing a Republican was if he attacked the Bush administration.

Public broadcasting -- a television network that is actually a coalition of largely locally autonomous stations -- is a delicate institution, I explained. In our effort to achieve political balance, I did not want to damage public broadcasting's image with controversy.

Now I realize most sophisticated political observers had the same reaction as Don Imus to the headline "Chairman exerts pressure on PBS, alleging bias ... cites a need for balance": That's front-page news?

And I realize there are those like Mr. Imus who would ask why we needed a consultant to document what is such a widely accepted fact of life.

Incredibly, when I brought the problem with "NOW" to the attention of PBS President Pat Mitchell, she declared (with a straight face) the program was balanced.

By the time I had irrefutable documentation of the program's bias, cooler heads among PBS leaders prevailed, Miss Mitchell herself had been forced to add political balance to the PBS lineup, and I was satisfied the system was moving (if ever so slowly) toward recognizing its political image problem.