Often I check out newscasts from several sources, not just in print and on the Internet but also on radio and TV.
One place I check regularly is Public Broadcasting Service TV’s “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” mainly because I am curious how a program funded to a considerable extent from money taken in taxes handles controversial topics. After all, the taxes are taken from all Americans who have a wide variety of viewpoints about the news while the “NewsHour” has limited resources and time and obviously cannot give all these viewpoints an equal chance to be represented.
Not surprisingly, then, nearly all treatments of controversial matters are decidedly biased on this program. And while one can say the same about NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox, those are all privately funded, and they aren’t taking money from people and covering stories in ways these people may very well find seriously objectionable.
PBS has an obligation to do a creditable job of representing the wide variety of viewpoints, while those