RADAR ALERT:
It's Time for the Inspector General to Investigate What Went Wrong at PBS

On December 2nd, the Public Broadcasting Service Ombudsman Michael Getler issued his report on Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories [http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2005/12/introduction_and_breaking_the_silence.html^URL CHANGED]. Getler criticized the program, saying:

• "there was no recognition of opposing views on this program."
• "I thought this particular program had almost no balance, and went too far, turning it, at least in my mind, into more of an advocacy, or point-of-view, presentation."
• "the totality of the presentation came across as quite tilted"

This criticism came hard on the heels of the report by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Ombudsman, Ken Bode [http://www.cpb.org/ombudsmen/051129bode.html]. Bode described the program as "slanted", said "there is no hint of balance in Breaking the Silence", and concluded that "Breaking the Silence needs to be reviewed for accuracy, fairness, and balance."

PBS and their affiliates have systems in place to assure adherence to the PBS Editorial Standards and Practices. Given the unanimity of both the PBS and the CPB ombudsmen on how seriously flawed this program was, it's clear that this program represents a massive system failure.

So RADAR is requesting that CPB's Inspector General, Ken Konz, conduct an investigation of Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories and make specific recommendations for how to make sure a system failure like this one doesn't happen again. A copy of the letter to Inspector General Konz can be read at http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/RADAR_letterToCPB_InspectorGeneral.pdf.

Please call or fax CPB's Inspector General with the message:

“Both the PBS and the CPB ombudsmen have stated that Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories lacked any balance and ignored the existence of any alternative views. The CPB ombudsman called for Breaking the Silence to be reviewed for accuracy, fairness, and balance. Please conduct such a review and recommend changes to guarantee that future programs comply with the US Congressional mandate to assure ‘strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature.’”

Here's the contact information:

Don't put it off. Call today!

Date of RADAR Release: December 11, 2005

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R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of men and women working to improve the effectiveness of our nation's approach to solving domestic violence. http://www.mediaradar.org